


Frozen lightning

by liliaeth



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Gen, M/M, Nicoló di Genova redemption arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 09:02:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 29,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30019383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liliaeth/pseuds/liliaeth
Summary: When Nicky joined the Crusader Order, he did so believing their purpose was to help people. When he finds out the group he is a member of, plans to cause a massacre that will cost thousands of lives, he goes to The Old Guard for help. But due to past issues, the only one willing to give him a chance is the superhero, Al-Tayyib, aka Joe.
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 17
Kudos: 105
Collections: Start Reading, The Old Guard Big Bang





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I just really wanted to think my artist [GrinAndBearIt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrinAndBearIt/pseuds/GrinAndBearIt) for the art :-)

Nicky was hiding in the closet, as quiet as he could be. Doing just what his Mama told him. “Don’t let them hear you, Tesoro, don’t let them find the two of you. Keep your sister safe.”

He had heard his Mama scream, but he bit back his tears, because Mama wanted him to stay quiet. They were playing hide and seek, she’d told him. “No matter what you hear, don’t come out.”

He curled up in the corner, keeping his sister close to him, hidden behind Mama’s dresses and daddy’s suits. 

“Don’t come out till, Papa, me or the cops come for you.”

Nicky held Lucia’s mouth shut, desperate for her to stay quiet as well, he’d heard his brother Marco scream, when the bad guys found him, his Papa begging for them to let him go, “he was only a boy”, Papa said, when only two days ago he’d called Marco a man, because he was finally old enough to shave.

“Please Lucia, be quiet.” He whispered. “We have to be quiet.”

Lucia stared at him in wide open shock, and nodded, tears filling her eyes almost as green as Mama's. She was only four, but she was so smart. So quiet, for both their sakes.

Nicky cradled her all night through till she fell asleep, till everything went quiet, till the morning light shone underneath the closet doors. But he stayed put, he stayed put all through the night, till Lucia started making her potty sounds. Nicky shivered, he knew what Mama said, but Lucia was a baby, and she couldn’t wait, not the way that big boys like him could. 

He carefully pushed against the door, quietly, ever so quietly, leading his little sister to the potty, keeping her eyes closed as they walked to the bathroom, and Nicky saw his brother’s body on the floor. His Papa’s blood all over the wall, his Mama…

Lucia didn’t see a thing.

When the police finally showed up, Nicky had taken her outside, he was shivering in the cold, as he’d given his sister his own coat to keep her safe. She was only a baby, she needed it more. His feet were covered in his family’s blood, as there had been nowhere else to go, just to get her out, so she didn’t have to see it. 

“Where’s Mama?” She’d asked. 

He hadn’t answered. Instead he pushed her on the baby swing till the cops arrived. He didn’t speak for another year after that.

*****

The criminals begged for mercy. But the Crusaders had no mercy to give. Like it was said, don’t complain, you volunteered. Nicky wiped off his sword on the pants of one of the men he’d cut down. They were nothing more than drug dealers, selling crack on the streets, causing nothing but pain and suffering. Like the ones who’d sold to the druggies that had murdered Nicky’s family, demanding money and jewels from a family that could barely afford to pay the rent as it were.

When he was a kid, Nicky had sworn he’d do anything to protect his sister. And now that he was an adult, he was still doing so, even if he hadn’t seen his baby sister ever since they’d been separated into the system. His sister had been young and cute, a mere four years old, she’d been adopted out quickly enough. Nicky though, at eight, he’d been traumatized and broken. There weren’t many parents looking for a kid that wouldn’t speak, that sat quietly in a chair, who refused to even touch the red paint, and wouldn’t let strangers touch them. 

Nicky had gone from foster family to foster family, until finally a distant cousin of his had been found. A man who was pissed to suddenly have some brat under his roof, especially a kid that only just barely spoke English. The man only took him in, because the state would pay him for it, and Nicky was quiet enough not to be a bother. 

Nicky had made sure to keep himself useful. Getting the man his beer when he needed it, playing quietly with the toy car his ‘uncle Phil’ gave him, and sitting out of the way as his uncle talked with his cop friends about whatever screw ups were gaming the system, or destroying the neighborhood. 

Nicky knew that not all his uncle said was true, but he knew better than to keep playing with the neighbor’s boys after his uncle raged about what wastrels people like ‘them’ were.

Oh he never actually used any of the ‘bad’ words, but Nicky was a smart kid, and it wasn’t hard to tell what his uncle really meant.

His uncle wasn’t a terrible man, he never beat Nicky, always made sure there was food on the table, gifts with Christmas… He taught Nicky how to use a gun, signed him up for boxing classes, self defense, and paid for his soccer equipment. 

In his own way, he always made sure to let Nicky know how pleased he was with him. Nicky was his ‘good boy’. It only made Nicky want to please him even more. It wasn’t easy living with him, living up to what was expected from him. But he tried so hard. He even learned how to cook, just so he could make sure his uncle had a warm meal to come home to after work.

Nicky remembered how scared he’d been when he first realized he loved boys instead of girls. When he found himself looking at his best friend Jack, the way Jack looked at Lizzie, and Suzie and Rebecca, and any and all of the other girls that passed in his friend’s life. When he realized he got jealous when Jack would kiss them on the couch with Nicky right next to them. And he found he was jealous of the girls, rather than of Jack.

It wasn’t normal. It made him a freak. His uncle had made that quite clear. But no matter how hard Nicky tried, he couldn’t bring himself to fall for girls like he ought to. He even went to the parish priest, and begged him for a cure. 

The priest told him to pray, to fight the temptation, and then told Nicky’s uncle.

Nicky had sat in the back of the car, staring at his hands, he’d been so scared. 

“That fucking asshole.”

Nicky cringed.

“I’m going to tell you this once, Nicky. Don’t expect me to repeat it.”

“Yes, sir.” Nicky responded quickly.

“you might be a faggot, you might be a freak. But you’re my boy. And you’re a damn good kid. And I don’t fucking care what that asshole says. You’re not going anywhere." He didn't turn around, Nicky could just see his eyes in the mirror, it didn't matter. He could see the tears in the man's eyes, the rare emotion in the eyes of a man who'd spent his life believing that being too soft was a weakness. "Now I don’t really want to see you bringing some boy home. But if it makes you happy to … to do those things with guys. Then I want you to be happy. Do you get that Nicolò? You're my boy, and I love you.”

Nicky had to fight his tears. He wanted to hug his uncle, but he knew the man wouldn’t appreciate it. 

He wanted to thank the man, but it was clear the conversation was over. And when they got home, his uncle sat down in front of the television, watching his football game. Nicky got his uncle a beer and sat down next to him. And it was never spoken about again. 

When the man died on the job two years later, Nicky felt like he lost his parents all over again. He went to the police academy right out of college, was trained as a sharpshooter. And when the crusaders started recruiting among the police force, Nicky was one of the first to sign up. 

He was volunteered for the special project half a year later. Something to do with a rare gene sequence that only a few people had that made him susceptible to the procedure. It had hurt like nothing he’d ever felt in his life. But when he sat back up, and the electricity started sparkling along his skin, it was all worth it. He tried not to think of the dead bodies that were carried out of the same room he was reborn in.

They gave him a new name after that. Zealot. It felt fitting for a member of the Templar Order.

The press either hated or loved them, seen mostly as extremists who showed no mercy in their battles. The liberal press saw them as outright villains. A lot of the superheroes sure as hell did. Nicky didn’t care. It wasn’t his fault that the Templars had to take the jobs that the ‘heroes’ were too soft to get done, too soft to finish up after themselves. Every time they let criminals go, those same criminals would go on to harm more innocent people. People like his parents.

Nicky might not know where his sister was, but he was going to make sure that the city was as safe as he could make it for her. He just wished hers hadn’t been a closed adoption. He’d thought of using the group’s resources to find her. But had decided against it. It was better for him not to bother her, not to remind her where she’d come from. (not to let the Crusaders know about her, or try and recruit her, not now that they knew she’d be susceptible to the process and likely to survive it.)

One of the men he was fighting tried to make a grab for Nicky’s sword, Nicky let his electricity stream through it, he could smell flesh burning, even as the men let go. Nicky killed him before he could suffer too much. That was the only mercy he was able to give.

He looked around, trying to find the dealer’s merchandise, he turned as he heard a sound. Ready to fight whomever was left. It was then that he saw him. A young boy, he couldn’t be more than fifteen.

Holding a gun, shaking madly. Terrified. Wide open eyes reflecting against a dark black face

“He’s only a boy.” He heard in his Papa’s voice, he let his hand sink down almost instinctively. It was just a kid, he could let him off with a warning. But before he could do so, the boy sank down, a hole burned through his skull. Nicky stared up at his partner. 

“You’re too soft for your own good, Nicky.” Keane said it in good humor. Not even caring about the boy he’d just shot. Nicky knew the man meant well. He’d just tried to protect Nicky from his own stupidity. Firebrand only wanted to keep him safe. But Nicky couldn’t help but kneel next to the boy, saying a prayer for the dead, as he closed the child’s eyes. 

They left not long after, leaving the evidence of the drug bust for the cops. Along with several corpses. It was a good day of work. 

Nicky didn’t even know why he was bothered by it, why he hesitated at the sight of the boy’s body, why he closed the boy’s eyes before leaving the scene. The kid had had a gun aimed at his face.

“He’s just a kid.” That ghostly voice rang in his head. He pushed it aside.


	2. Chapter 2

Joe knelt down beside the body. One of them was just a kid. Fourteen years old. Tobias had only been there because he’d been following his big brother. Joe knew them both since they were babies, their grandmother had shopped in the same store as his mother did. If Joe had been any less lucky, he could have been them. He could have been the one trying to make some extra money, without fully thinking it through. He could have been the one keeping an eye out for his big brother. He could have been, but he wasn’t. He’d been the lucky one.

He closed the boy’s eyes. Toby had probably been told to stay in the car while his brother took care of business. Pete wasn’t a bad guy. He was barely more than a kid himself. No jobs, no relief, selling drugs would have seemed like an easy way out. Especially when you saw the dealers in your neighborhood driving big cars, while your hardworking Momma could barely keep the lights on.

Not that the Templars had cared about any of that. It didn’t matter to them that Pete hadn’t ever harmed anyone. That his gun had been empty, and that he’d have bungled even trying to shoot anyone. That his little brother was an aspiring artist who was already creating graffiti that had made Joe stand still and admire it, or that the boy already had a standing invite for an art academy as soon as he was old enough. Or that all his older brother had wanted to do, was to earn just enough to get his little brother of the streets..

Joe took a clear look of the crime scene, before the cops could mess it up too much. Not like it mattered to them that there were six less drug dealers in the world. These weren’t victims they gave a fuck about. An elderly woman came out screaming and crying, and had to be held back before she fell down at her grandsons’ bodies.

Joe shivered as she saw him, how she didn’t recognize him when he was in costume. He knew she probably thought he cared as little as the cops did. Telling her otherwise would be about making himself feel better rather than her, so he didn’t. Instead he collected what evidence he could.

“I don’t see what the problem is. The Templars were just doing their work.” One of the cops blurted out, as if he expected everyone around him to agree with him. 

“Murdering people.” Joe muttered. The cop turned to him.

“Well maybe if you guys weren’t so soft, criminals wouldn’t be out on the streets, within hours after you bring them in.”

“It’s my job to protect people, Officer. Not to be a judge and executioner. Whatever you or the Templars might think… these people had a right to a day in court. That boy… he’s just a kid. Are you going to tell me he deserved to die?”

“They just got him before he could harm anyone.”

Joe wanted to make every blood vessel in the man’s body explode, he knew he could. Blood involved water. But he held back, memorizing the man’s badge number instead. Ready to add it to a watchlist of cops to keep an eye on.

He moved to his bike, adding the evidence he collected to the bags, letting the analysis start as he drove. He knew the city was getting worse and worse, the Templars fans liked to claim they were necessary, but Joe knew they were only making things worse.

The computer sent the information to his goggles. He quickly touched a button on the side of his mask. There was evidence of Electricity and heat waves. So Zealot and Firebrand were probably involved in the attack. 

Joe had faced both before. Firebrand was an asshole, ex special forces, turned cop, turned Templar. His real name was David Keane. Andromache had brought him in once, kicked the crap out of his stormtrooper lackeys. Most of the crusaders were regular men, and a rare few women. Recruited from the military and the police force. It’s just a few of them that had superpowers, granted to them by the Crusaders’ pet scientist. Meta Kozak. A woman with more blood on her hands, than any of the idiots that let her experiment on them.

Zealot… he was more mysterious, more withdrawn, and a lot less reckless than his teammates. He had a tendency to go for long distance, and the few times he got close up, he was too deadly to leave witnesses. 

Joe had faced off with him on numerous occasions, but no matter how good Joe knew he himself was, he’d never managed to take the guy down long enough to bring him in. All he knew for sure, was that Zealot was white, had an Italian accent, was slightly shorter than Joe himself, and oh yes, he had some kind of electrical powers that he often used through his sword. 

Joe drove into headquarters, grabbed the evidence unit and headed to the main room. Andromache was talking to Nile, the newest member of the team. Nile was young, but she had more caution and common sense in her little pinky, than Andromache had gathered in her thousands of years of life. 

Joe was often awed at the Amazon. Nobody knew where her powers came from. But Andy was the first ever superhero, and nigh unkillable. Even now with her powers slowly fading away. Joe worried for her, but Andy would kick his ass if he let her find out.

It’s why she found Nile. Nile was young, brilliant, and the next in line to inherit Andy’s powers. She’d slowly started to gain Andy’s invulnerability, and Andy was convinced that over the next few years, she’d become as much of a flying brick as Andy was. She just needed time, and Andy was making sure to train her before she got there.

“How bad was it?”

“At least two Templars were involved. They killed five low level dealers and a kid.”

“And let me guess, the cops aren’t interested?”

“As usual.”

Joe sat down in a chair, putting his feet on the control panel. If Copley were here, Joe wouldn’t hear the end of it. Andy didn’t really care, and Nile was still too new to call him out on it.

“Doesn’t this feel a bit beneath theml.” Nile muttered. They both turned to her.

“What do you mean?”

“Well think about it. The Templars are the best, well the strongest the Crusaders have to offer, right? Don’t they have bigger fry to go after than some low level dealers? Any regular crusader could have handled something like that.”

Joe couldn’t help but agree. He’d been so busy thinking about the aftermath, that he hadn’t bothered to think of the why. Zealot and Firebrand were two of the Templar’s best. Either of them could have taken on an entire gang double that size on their own without even breaking a sweat. So what had they been doing in the area in the first place? 

It’s not that it was out of the ordinary for them to go after nobodies. But usually only when they were already in the area to begin with, and were bored enough to be bothered to put in the effort..

“We’ll have to keep an eye on the area. If the Templars are up to something serious enough to send two of their heavy hitters into the neighborhood, then we need to be careful.”

Joe sent the information to Copley, so he could work on it when he got back. The man was off on some kind of charity gala to keep up his contacts among the elite. The Old Guard needed those contacts, no matter how much Joe reviled schmoozing with the lot of them. It made him feel dirty, being around those people who just saw superheroes as the ‘it’ thing, something you wanted to be seen with to show just how ‘cool’ or ‘with it’ you were. While half of them thought they were nothing but a bunch of clowns. No matter how often they’d saved not just the city, but the world as a whole.

He tried to do some of the work, but he knew it wasn’t his strength. Computers, detective work, he wasn’t entirely clueless, but it was what they had people like Copley for. Someone who could actually handle things like that.

“I can go back. Maybe talk to Booker.”

“Go to bed first, Joe. You’ve been up since this morning.”

“But what if they…”

“If they try anything, you won’t be of any use if you’re half exhausted. 

Nile looked just as bad off. And Joe knew that Andy was sending him to bed as much for Nile’s benefit, so she didn’t feel like she was failing to keep up with him. 

He stretched as he got out of his chair.

“Come on, kid. No use fighting with Andy when she gets like this.”

Nile was yawning, which was enough of an answer in and of itself.

Yusuf had to force himself to put his phone down, clinging in his sheets as he twisted and turned. So when the alarms went off a few hours later, he was still half awake. Ready to jump out of bed, rubbing his hands through his eyes, to make the world clear in front of his eyes.

Andy was fully dressed, Nile was only half dressed while Quynh looked like she came out of a lingerie catalogue. He didn’t even want to ask what her and Andy had been up to. Celeste looked as tired as he was, while Copley had seemingly only just returned from the gala.

The safehouse’s security system was already fighting off the intruder, but they knew better than to count on it, the cameras were already out.

Joe opened the door, ready for anything, except for what he got. 

Zealot, injured, blood streaking over his white templar outfit, covering his mask down to the cross on his chest but still fighting off the security system, till he saw them, when he gave up and let the metal shackles grab his hands as he knelt before them. 

They were all ready to take him out.

“I need your help. Per favore.”

“Oh we’ll help you, help you to jail that is.” Joe glared at the man, ready to hit him with a burst of water and ice shackles to make sure he was really down.

“Please, I won’t fight, but you need to stop them.”

“Stop who?” Andromache asked, her axe ready to take him down.

“My brothers, the Templars. They’re going to kill everyone. Per favore. They need…” Zealot went down before he could say the rest. Joe knelt down next to him, making sure the bastard wasn’t up to something. He took off the man’s mask, noticing the man’s injuries. Someone had hit him bad even before the base’s defenses had gotten to him, there was a burn wound on his side.” 

Joe picked him up, ready to take him to the infirmary. Zealot was lighter than Joe would have thought he would be. Younger as well. Probably only a few years younger than Joe himself. Joe looked down on the man’s face. He looked almost beautiful. He shrugged it off, the man was a monster. So why couldn’t he help the urge to worry about him regardless?


	3. Chapter 3

Nile was half asleep when the alarms went off. But after months of training with Andy, she was out of bed, half a minute later. She almost ran into Celeste on her way out of the room. Celeste was covered in a bathrobe, making Nile regret that she hadn’t at least grabbed a sweater before running out of the room to see what was going on. She was feeling the chill now. 

It was weird how she coudl feel the cold, but had no issue walking barefoot across the headquarter's hallways. No slippers, no socks, just bare feet on cold marble tiles, and all that bothered her was the chill, and the wind whispering through the halls so late at night. In daytime you'd have workers and bots keeping the place sparkling clean, or the chatter of tourists walking through the public spaces of the building. It only made the place feel even more abandoned once night fell over the city.

The two of them stood on the side as Andromache and Al-Tayyib shared a glance before Al-Tayyib carried the man over to the infirmary. Nile could feel the hair stand up at the back of her neck, she’d never been this close to a Templar before. Andy had said she wasn’t ready yet. It was annoying, because Nile knew she could handle herself. She as a marine, she'd seen battle. But she knew better than to argue on this. It would only get Andromache more convinced Nile was just a kid who needed protection from herself.

She was 26, hardly a child, but to someone like Andromache, she’d be a baby for at least another century. Especially with the lifespan she’d end up having if Andy was right about their connection.

Only half a year ago, Nile had been your typical Chicago girl, born in a neighborhood in decline, hanging on to what you had for mere survival. It wasn’t that she hadn’t had a happy childhood. Even after Dad’s death, Mom had held on for her and Solomon, making sure they never went without a meal, Santa Claus or whatever else they might need for school.Making the most out of what their Dad’s pension would offer them.

Nile had figured, like many before her, that if she joined the army, she could use that to fund her dreams of college. Just a few years of service to her country, and she could avoid putting her Mom into even more debts just so she could afford to send both of her kids to a halfway decent school.

It had been a pathway into a nightmare. By the time it was over, Andy and her were holding hands, light divided between them. Andy hadn’t even let her apologize for any of it. She seemed almost happy to have an end in sight, as if knowing she’d have someone to take over, had unburdened her, and refilled her with purpose. 

It was a weight that Nile hoped she wouldn’t feel for a long long time to come.

Andromache had arranged for Nile to be transferred to the Old Guard. ‘Superhumans’ weren’t allowed to serve in the armed forces, and since that’s what she was now, Nile had been given an honorable discharge. Her sergeant had given her her tags and saluted her, said he'd pray he'd never get in a situation where he'd need to see her again. She couldn't blame him. Regular people didn't tend to see the socalled superheroes, until they got into a situation dire enough to need someone with superpowers to get out of . She didn’t feel super, and she definitely didn’t feel like a hero. It was odd being among these people, many of whom had saved the world a dozen times over. It was even weirder to be seen as one of them, wearing some freaky skintight outfit that could have made her feel embarrassed in the gym, let out on the streets. Quynh said it made her ass looked good. She wasn't wrong, but it made Nile embarrassed to have her Mom see any picture of her in it.

Andy said it helped to get people to focus on the suit, instead of on your face. As ridiculous as it might look, it did have a practical purpose. it made people less likely to recognize you when you went out in public without a mask to cover your face.  
It was a nice explanation, Nile though, Nile felt like Quynh had designed her outfit with the exact purpose of embarrassing her. At least her brother seemed to get some enjoyment out of it, he’d even created a ‘River’ fanclub. She hated it, and she loved it in equal measure.

Zealot was already close to waking up, a soft groan escaped his lips. It made Joe hesitate for a moment, but it didn’t seem like the man was faking.

Once they got Zealot to the infirmary, they wasted no time securing him. The Templars were not known for honor in defeat, and there had been more than one of their Crusader lackey’s who’d used himself as a suicide bomb for one of their missions. They were fanatics of the worst kind. White supremacists with a 'righteous' cause.

Celeste hesitated a moment before approaching the man, even after he was secured. She had even more reason to fear the Templars than any of the rest of them did. Back when the Crusaders first invented the process to create their Templars, it wasn’t their own men that they experimented on. Most of that had been done on the homeless, often on teens like Celeste had been. Runaways, children with nowhere to go. Celeste had been nineteen, thrown out as soon as she aged out of the foster system. The Crusader’s scientists hadn’t cared about their little labrats wellbeing. They just wanted to know if the process would work or not.

It had, on some of their victims at least. Celeste had barely been able to get away, she still didn’t know what had happened to the few others who’d survived the process. By the time Quynh found her, she’d been sitting on top of a bridge, ready to jump to silence all the noise in her head.

Quynh had helped her, had trained her, Lykon had sat with her, and had taken her on runs when the noise got too loud, cancelling it out with his speed. 

A year later the Templars had appeared on the scene for the first time. There were seven of them, the worst of the worst as far as Celeste was concerned. Each and every last one of them had the blood of innocents on their hands.

Nile couldn't disagree with her.

And yet, Zealot seemed almost helpless, all tied up as he was. If she ignored his costume, he might almost look like a regular guy, a man, like any other.

Celeste put the man’s sword in a case, shut with triple locks, just in case it was rigged to explode.

An alarm went off, and Nile shivered as Zealot woke up, lifting his face, unable to rise and attack them.   
It was showtime.

****

Booker didn’t even look at the alarms going off from the computer, he ignored it. His head hurt too much from last night’s drinking to even grab at any of the information hanging in the air around him.   
He just grabbed the bottle and poured himself another drink. Just one more day, one more time before he got up and faced the world. He wasn’t even sure why he kept going anymore.

He stared at the message he’d received from Quynh. Not even bothering to read it. What did any of it matter. He hated that the Guard wanted to be his friends, it made it harder to hate the world when they did, and he just wanted to forget there was life outside of his store, outside of the ones and zero that occupied his day, letting him forget his wife, his family, and all else he'd lost.

His head hurt, his body ached, and life sucked. He stared at the picture of his family standing on the desk. He threw it to the floor where it hit with a hard bash. 

He knelt beside it, staring at the broken glass, his fingers brushing the old picture inside. A drop of blood emerged on a splinter of glass. 

He put the broken picture back on the desk. He’d fix it later.

Just like he’d fix everything… someday.

It was night, he drank, he sank down on the couch. 

He didn’t fall back asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Nicky woke up on an infirmary cot, his hands tied to the side of the bed, his injuries tended. He felt a cold spreading from inside his chest, as if the warmth inside of him was smothered in ice. He recognized the feeling, power dampeners. There was a glitter in the air around him, warning him that he was surrounded by a forcefield. They weren’t taking any risk. He couldn’t really blame them.

Andromache was holding his mask. Throwing it to the floor when she noticed he was awake. Nicky flinched at the look in her eyes.

If he wasn’t already down, she’d be killing him.

After what he’d done, he probably deserved it.

He shivered, trying to sit up. Reminding himself that he’d come for a reason. And these people were the only hope he had. 

“Stay put, Mister Di Genova.”

He almost choked at the sound of his name on her tongue. The reminder that they now knew who he was. He wasn’t sure what to say. Should he let her take the lead, let her interrogate him? Or should he hurry this up, so they could go take down his friends, his family of the past few years and keep them from harming innocents.

He’d been so damn sure that the cause he’d joined had been a righteous one. That they were protecting people. He still believed that, and yet, what Merrick was planning, it was wrong, so damn wrong.

“You have to –“

She cut him off before he could continue.

“Do what? Walk into another one of your traps?”

“I –“

“I fell for your traps once, and one of my soldiers is still paying the price for that mistake.”

“We never meant for Lykon to be hurt like that.”

“Right, because you care so damn much.” She snorted, he could see her roll her eyes from where he was lying.

“Innocent people will die.” He tried to sit up, to convince her, to do anything to get her to listen to him.

“Oh we’ll figure out what you were up to, Zealot. But I’m not stupid enough to accept a word you say.”

Nicky knew there was no time. He had to tell them what he knew, but how could he, if she wouldn’t even listen. “I have evidence.” He tried to say, but she wasn’t hearing it.

“We’re already getting the crown, once we have that, you won’t have a chance but to tell us the truth.”

Nicky let himself sink down, 

“Yes, grazie, do that. I’ll submit to it.”

He knew the crown of truth, the Crusaders had gone after it before.

“Damn right you will. It should be here in two days.”

“No! You need to listen now. There is no time!”

But she wasn’t listening.

“Can’t we, you know, at least listen?” Nicky stared up at Al-Tayyib, the superhero sat just barely in sight. He was still dressed in stretch pants, his chest naked, he was only wearing a mask that hung a bit off kilter, like he’d put it on in a hurry. Nicky barely remembered seeing the man’s face last night. 

“We can’t trust a word he says, Al-Tayyib.”

“But…” 

“We’ll keep looking for the Templars. But trusting him, it won’t help, for all we know, whatever he says is just a trick to get us out of the way and hide whatever they’re really up to.”

Nicky shivered at the coldness in her voice. 

“Now go back to bed. We’ll keep him here till we get the crown. Once we know what he’s really up to, we can send him to jail where he belongs, and we’ll have one less threat to worry about.”

Her order was clear, absolute. Al-Tayyib seemed ready to leave. Nicky knew he couldn’t let the man do so. Not when he was the only one willing to even listen.

“Please, per favore. They’ll destroy the entire East Side. There’s thousands of people living there. If you don’t act now, they’ll kill them all! I can prove it!”

“So where is this so called ‘evidence’”

“It’s on a stick, I had it. I can tell you where to find it.”

“And walk in a trap while doing so;” She glared at him.

Nicky knew he should have brought the stick with him, but when the others attacked him, he’d barely gotten away, and he’d had to make sure the stick would be safe, that if he was stopped, it could be found..

“Ignore him, Al-Tayyib. He’s nothing but a liar.” Nicky kept pleading for her to listen, to at least let him explain, but she refused. 

Al-Tayyib froze in the door, as if hesitating. But Nicky knew better than to expect him to believe a word Nicky said, when Andromache told him otherwise, when Quynh put a hand on his shoulder, and reminded him of Lykon.. With the sorceress glaring at him and making it clear what she’d do if he dared say another word. Andromache pressed a button on the panel next to her, and a moment later the room went quiet. And Nicky knew no one else would be listening to him anymore either.

He let himself sink down, struggling between anger and terror, and above all, knowing it was his own damn fault. All because when Keane told him to make a deal with the Guard, he’d genuinely thought he could work with them. He’d hoped that maybe, if only they understood they were on the same side, that they could be allies instead of enemies. Except his people hadn’t felt the same way. They’d used his foolishness to set a trap. And the next thing he knew, one of the Old Guard was lying on the floor, shaking from the electric blast Nicky had shot at him, and the fall he’d made hitting just the wrong part of a fence. Lykon would never walk again, and it was all Nicky’s fault. Because he’d been too soft, too trusting. 

And now Andromache was going to let thousands of people die, because she knew just what an idiot he was, and had no reason to trust him left.

He’d been a fool then, and he was a fool now. What happened to Lykon should have been plenty of warning, telling him to take a deeper look into the people he worked for. But he’d done so much for them, sacrificed so damn much, that he had had to believe it was all worth it. That they were doing what was best for everyone. 

And yet, when he heard Merrick reveal the grand plan that night, the biggest shock had been that he was the only one in the room who wasn’t OK with it. The others seemed to think that a sacrifice was worth it, to make the city safer for everyone. All Nicky could see was the children living in those streets, the innocents, the ones they were supposed to protect. 

“Oh come on Nicky.” Keane had said afterwards. “Those streets are a lost cause as it is. Why care about a few thousand drug addicts and losers, when we’re set to make life better for hundreds of thousand, maybe even millions more across the country? Most of the people living there are a waste of resources, living on the streets, begging for a hand out. We’re doing them a favor, ending their suffering.”

“They’re people.’

“They’re the rot in the city, Nicky boy. Filth, vermin. And we’re pest control.”

Nicky had punched him in the face. The others hadn’t been happy with him for that. They’d been even less happy when he tried to make a grab for the plans. He’d only barely gotten out of the room alive. The cries of ‘traitor’ running after him.

He’d thought everything was going to be fine when he managed to get to The Old Guard headquarters. That somehow he could make up for what he’d done, and make it better. But he’d been stupid once again. 

He tried to fight the cuffs, knowing he’d have to get out. Had to do something. Because if no one would believe him, then he was the only one left able to save those people. Even if he had to die to stop it.

He was still struggling when he saw the light turn back on. Andromache was long gone, as were the others. He’d been left alone in the dark.

The silence was still absolute, but he could see him, Al-Tayyib. This time fully dressed up in costume. The blue looking far too good on the man’s body, emphasizing his every muscle. 

Al-Tayyib pressed the mute button, turning it off. Nicky sat up, “Please.”

“You said people are in danger.”

“Yes. Per favore, giuro su Dio if they’re not stopped, they’ll kill everyone.”

“Andy doesn’t believe you.”

Nicky pulled back, looking up at the ceiling.

“The problem is, whether I believe you or not. I can’t take the risk that you aren’t lying.”

To Nicky’s shock the force-field went down next. Al-Tayyib came closer, he was holding a pair of power dimming bracelets. 

“Give me your hands.” Nicky didn’t even hesitate, letting the man put them on his wrists. Al-Tayyib stared at him one last time before undoing the cuffs that held Nicky to the cot. Nicky cringed as he sat up, the pain a piercing feeling as he moved. He couldn’t let it stop him.

“So what are we doing?”

“First of all, getting out of here, then we’ll get that evidence, before I’ll check your story with a friend of mine. If I find out you lied to me, you’ll be wishing I’d have left you in Andy’s hands. Is that clear?”

Nicky didn’t even bother to answer. Following after the hero without hesitation.  



	5. Chapter 5

Joe knew this was stupid. This was Zealot he was trusting. The man was a coldhearted fanatic with no concern for anyone. And yet… In all the years the two of them had been fighting, the man had never seemed to be a liar. Zealot had seemed almost straightforward. He told you what he was after, and went for it. 

Except for that one time when he’d lured Lykon into a trap, Joe reminded himself.

Joe grabbed his bike and told Zealot to get on the back, tying the man’s cuffs to his seat. Zealot was almost quiet, and far too obedient. It made Joe question his every decision since reentering the infirmary after Andy had left.

“Why do you suddenly care anyway. Not like you’ve ever cared about innocents before.”

“I’ve always cared about innocents.” Zealot answered. “It’s why I do … this.”

This meaning being a vigilante, joining a hate group. Oh, they didn’t call themselves a hate group. They even had some members that weren’t white, that were foreigners. But everyone knew just who they targeted most of their actions at, and how much harsher they were against people they didn’t consider proper ‘Europeans’, aka white Christian people.

“Is that why you killed that kid last night?”

Zealot froze up at that.

“I didn’t kill that boy.”

“But you didn’t stop Firebrand from doing so either.”

“The Boy was aiming a gun at me.”

“As if you couldn’t have stopped him without killing him.”

Zealot shut up after that, stayed quiet for most of the drive.

“I wanted to. To let him go. Keane shot him before I could do so.”

And the worst part, was that the sadness in Zealot’s voice actually sounded real, like he meant it.

“But you had no shame killing the kid’s brother. Pete was only nineteen, he wasn’t much more than a kid himself.” A kid who only two years ago had spent all summer selling soda to buy his grandma a new walker. A kid who only seven years ago had won first place in a spelling bee, his Mom bragging about it to everyone she met

“He chose to sell drugs.”

“And what? That somehow earns him a death sentence?” What made what he did worthy of a death sentence?

It pissed Joe off. How this asshole could be ok with murder, with deciding who got to live or die. And then pretend he was any kind of righteous.

“Have you seen what drugs do to people. How many they hurt.”

“I have, but going after people that low on the totem pole doesn’t help anyone. The guys in charge won’t even care, all they’ll give a damn about is the drugs they lose. You kill these guys, and before you know it they’ll just get some new kids desperate to earn a few extra bucks, and business goes on as usual.”

“It serves as a warning.”

“A warning for what? Cops have been killing people for years, all it does is make things worse, makes people too scared to call for help when they need it. Half the reason these neighborhoods get as bad as they are, is because they can’t trust anyone to keep them safe. So they end up doing whatever they can just to survive.”

“So just let them go on committing crimes and harm innocent people.”

“No, just stop it in a way that doesn’t cause more harm than good.”

Zealot fell silent after that. Joe tried not to think too hard on the man. He’d only given a quick look at what Andy found about him, after they had him fingerprinted and his picture scanned in.

Nicoló Di Genova, age 31. Former police officer, riot cop. Sharpshooter. Member of the Crusaders. Parents were dead, raised by a distant family member since the age of eight. Italian origin. No criminal record, well not until now. As Zealot the man had killed dozens of people, probably more that they didn’t even know about. Joe couldn’t understand how the man could live with himself.

It’s not like Joe’s own hands were clean. There had been situations where he’d had no choice, where the other side had given him no other way out, and lives had depended on it. But he had felt every single life he’d taken, and would do anything, if he could bring them back, if there had been some other way. He was pretty damn sure Zealot couldn’t say the same thing.

He followed Zealot’s directions, while careful to make sure he wasn’t driving right into a trap. The place looked like a dump. Zealot claimed it as a safehouse he’d used before. One the Templars didn’t know he still owned. There were a bunch of mailboxes downstairs and a hallway that smelled like piss. Zealot didn’t lead them upstairs as Joe had to fight the urge to clench his nose shut.

“So what exactly are your people planning?” He asked after clicking the code that Zealot had given him for the lock. The man’s hands were still tied.

Zealot hesitated, almost as if he tried to pull away from Joe. Bit too late for that now.

“They’ve had us taken on small dealers, taking their drug supply.”

“And.”

“Merrick said they were going to put it back on the streets, mixed with a psychotic, anyone using it would become violent, take out anyone around them, giving the cops an excuse to kill them all. With no idea of how many other people around them would get killed. Combine it with some bomb attacks, to allow riot squads to move in, and use lethal violence against anyone out on the streets.”

“And make it all look like the locals are just going insane.”

“Si.”

“And this evidence?” The lock fell open, showing a small black usb stick that looked oh so inconspicuous, but could be anything.

“It has the location where the drugs will be spread, along with probable locations for the bombs.”

“Fuck.”

“I grabbed it after the presentation. I don’t know if they plan to change things, I just…”

“You had an attack of a conscience.”

“I joined the Crusaders to protect people, to help people. Not to murder innocents.”

But he’d still done so. Joe couldn’t forget that, no matter how much he might want to believe the bastard. No matter how much he wanted to think the best of people, and believe that even someone like Zealot wasn’t completely evil.

But that was the slippery slope wasn’t it? Believing that once someone did something bad, that they were irredeemable for all time. It’s what the Crusaders had fallen down from. Believing it about the Templar now, did that make him as bad as them?

He let his fingers brush past the stick. Technically he had no more reason to keep Zealot around. He should just hand him back to Andy, let him rot in a cell while he dealt with this. Thing was, he wasn’t stupid enough to put anything a Templar brought with him into the Guard’s mainframe, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t alternatives. And he needed all the evidence he could get before getting Andy and the others involved. If he were smarter he’d warn Booker in advance. But if he did, Book would probably lock the door. And then he’d have to go back to Andy with his tail between his legs, and a tied up Templar in tow.

He just drove on.

They arrived at Booker’s place shortly after.

Joe unhooked Zealot from the bike, but left him in the cuffs. He had no reason to trust the man not to try something, either to escape, or to hurt Book. Yet part of him felt bad about leaving the other so defenseless in a neighborhood like this one. Especially with how many had lost friends or loved ones to the Crusaders ire. Zealot pulled up his hood, as if hiding behind it.

Booker was paranoid, beyond careful. Yet if you entered his ‘shop’, you wouldn’t know just how many security measures you had to go through as you got deeper to the back of the store.

By the time they got to the counter, and the plastic glass hiding the salesclerk from intruders and bullets if needed; Booker would know everything about who they were and where they came from. It showed his faith in Joe, that the Frenchman hadn’t taken off yet. Booker appeared behind the counter, telling the old woman handling the register that he’d deal with them. 

“Did you bring me a present, Al-Tayyib, you didn’t have to, my birthday isn’t for at least another month.” The smirk on Booker’s face promised things Joe didn’t even want to think of.

“Shut it, Book.” Booker got up, and opened the door to the backroom allowing both of them entry. Getting in the way as Zealot did so.

Booker grabbed Zealot’s chin, making the hood fall away from his face, staring at his masked face. “What’s up with the bastard, any reason he isn’t in a cell right now?”

“The Templars are planning something. Zealot claims he wants to stop what they’re up to.”

Booker started laughing, till he looked at Joe’s face. “You’re serious? This piece the merde wants us to believe he gives a fuck about anyone?”

“More than you.” Book hit Zealot in the face before Joe could stop him. Zealot went down, as he got up, he brought his hand to his lips, wiping away the blood. When Booker tried to go after him again, Zealot took him down with a sweep of his feet. He shouldn’t stand a chance, not chained up and depowered as he was, but Joe knew Zealot could easily kill Booker, even now, and he quickly got in the way between both of them.

Both of them were glaring at him now.

“Book, stop being an asshole. Zealot, try anything, and I’m handing you right back over to Andromache. Is that clear?” The Templar looked at him, as if making sure, before nodding.

“I did not come looking for a fight.”

Booker backed away. “What do you want, Joe.”

Joe threw him the stick. “We need the information that’s on this. Just make sure it’s safe. Zealot says it’s evidence on what the Templars are planning

“And you thought my computers were safer to risk than yours?”

“Yours are better.”

“Well that much is true at least.”

Booker grabbed the stick out of Joe’s hands and moved to his computer, after he left, Zealot turned to Joe. “What’s his problem?”

“Your ‘brothers’ killed his son.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Your ‘brothers’ killed his son.”

Nicky froze, stared at the man they were dealing with. The name sounded familiar. Booker, or Sebastien Le Livre. A technopath, forger and thief. A man who had a tendency to get in their way, and had caused the Templars more trouble than any of the heroes put together.

The Templars had had a bounty on his head for years. And yet here the man was, safe inside his haven. He wasn’t what Nicky would have imagined him to be.

“I didn’t.”

“How would you know?”

The problem was, he didn’t. He’d killed a lot of criminals in the past few years, first as a Crusader, then as a Templar. As far as he knew, he could have easily killed Booker’s son. 

“If I did kill him, then he was harming people.”

“Oh right, because you ‘just want to protect people’. How do you even know that the people you murdered weren’t just trying to protect themselves from the likes of you? How can you possibly know they weren’t innocent?”

Nicky shivered at the righteous indignation in the other’s voice. The problem was, he didn’t know, he had no real way of knowing. Not anymore, not now that he was more and more starting to realize he couldn't trust a word his superiors had been telling him.

He wanted to get al-Tayyib to understand, to know that Nicky wasn’t the enemy. It’s just, any defense he ever had of the Crusaders’ work fell flat when he remembered how few of his brothers had had a word to say against Merrick’s plan. How many of them didn’t even seem to care about anything but following their orders. They were supposed to be the good guys. But how could that be if they were the ones killing innocent people. He saw his image reflected in the glass and stared at the blood tainting the white. How much of it had beenhis own, and how much of it had been his brothers’ because they rather killed him, than let him stop them from doing the wrong thing.

He took off his mask, trying to cleanse the lenses at the very least.

“If this is real, we’re all in deep shit.”

“Book?”

“Seems like they’re planning a trial attack first. Attacking the East side first, seeing how many druggies they can take down, before they’re targeting the rest of the city. Even if they were to succeed, fatalities could run up far higher than even they think they could.” He turned to the screen that clicked on as his eyes lit up, showing the plans. 

“That drug they’re working on, It doesn’t end at just the ones who take it. Any of the users’ blood gets on anyone else, and they’ll be infected with it as well. It’ll be a massacre.And even they don’t know for sure where it’ll end. Whomever designed this, is a monster.”

“But that’s not… that’s not what we are supposed to do? That goes against anything the Crusaders are supposed to be about.” Nicky had to force himself to keep breathing, to keep from hyperventilating as he remembered back to every speech he heard from their superiors, every word told to him by the men in charge, every...

“They’re planning to use the city as an example. To show what druggies and addicts can cause if the law isn’t stricter. If the police don't get the funding they want them to get, if martial law isn’t enacted.”

“But that’s not…” Nicky had rebelled against the idea of a few thousand dead. But this…

“They figured your ‘brothers’ would be ok with a few thousand dead, they didn’t bother to tell you about the rest of it, because even scum like you would want to at least get your own families to safety first. And they couldn’t have that. It would send out too many warning signals.”

Nicky’s thoughts instantly went to Lucia, and how he had no idea where she was, or how to find her. 

“We need to stop it.”

“Well at least ‘that’ we can agree on.” 

Nicky shivered at the blatant hatred in the other’s voice. But he was used to that. Far too used to it, hate was something he could deal with. 

He wished he could throw it in the group chat, warn his brothers of what their superiors were up to. But Andromache had broken his communicator when she’d first locked him up. 

“Maybe I could warn the others, get them to see sense?”

“They won’t let you.”

“They won’t listen.”

Al-Tayyib and Book threw it out at the same time.

“But, … they wouldn’t.”

“Zealot, how many of the others gave a fuck when they assumed the plan just involved a city block?”

None, that’s how many. And it had broken him, this notion that these people he’d considered his friends would have gone along with that, that they would.

“It’s wrong.”

“Damn right it is.”

He was still holding on to the mask, trembling as he realized that he was alone. Andromache hadn’t even wanted to listen to him. The only ones willing to listen to him, were a man he’d been fighting for years and a criminal. And yet both of those cared more about saving people than any of the men he’d shared his life with for the past few years. The men he’d been willing to give his life for. That had tied him down on a table and had changed him into… this… and then expected him to be theirs.

“How do we stop them.” he whispered. 

“You think I’m gonna let you free enough to turn against us?” Al-Tayyib sounded like what he’d said was almost ridiculous.

“I need to stop them.”

“Look, Zealot. I appreciate you wanting to help. But I can’t trust you.”

Nicky stared at him, ready to fall to his knees and beg him. Anything to let him help, let him do something, anything to stop this. But before he could do so, bracelets of fluid ice pulled him to a chair and tied him down. He tried to struggle, but they were too strong, and the power dampeners in the cuffs were already weakening him as it was.

Booker looked at him with almost sympathy, an understanding that Nicky knew he didn’t deserve. 

Nicky didn’t stop fighting. Even though he knew from past experience that there was no way he could ever get out of Al-Tayyib’s chains if the man didn’t let him. Not without his powers

Instead he had to watch as the hero tried to contact his friends. But most of them were already gone on some kind of mission. Operative was the only one to take Al-Tayyib’s call.

There had been a bomb warning near city hall. It was one of the distractions put in the plan, to keep the heroes from figuring out what was really going on until it was too late. The problem is that they couldn’t ignore the bombs, because to do so would cost lives as well. 

Nicky stared at the schematics that Booker was sending to Andromache, just to help her find them sooner. 

“You need me.” he whispered. Al-Tayyib didn’t even look at him.

“It’s the whole point of the bombs, to keep you guys distracted, till it’s too late to stop the city from burning. But you can’t stop them on your own. Al-Tayyib, I’m not asking you to trust me. I’m asking you to please, let me help. Let me make this right? I need to make this right.”

Al-Tayyib turned to him, Nicky felt almost naked without his mask as the man looked in his eyes.

He got his answer a few seconds later as the ice melted around his wrists.

“I can’t promise this will get your sentence reduced.”

“That’s not why I’m doing this.”

And he probably didn’t even deserve it. Who knows how many other missions he’d gone on, believing they were the right thing to do. How many more innocents he might have killed, no matter how unknowingly. People the Crusaders thought were worth sacrificing in the name of the great purpose. He deserved to pay for that. But none of that mattered right now,all that did, was to save as many lives as he possibly could.

“I’d better not regret this.” 

The power cuffs around Nicky’s wrists flickered out, and snapped off as they fell to the floor. Nicky felt the fire inside him burn back through his veins. After the ice it felt like being on fire, and he could feel the electricity flash in his eyes

Both of them turned to Booker as the Frenchman scraped his throat. 

“What? You think I’m gonna let you do this on your own?”

“Book, you’re not a fighter.”

“I never claimed I was.” he said as he threw them a pair of com links. “But I can help from here. Keep you informed where the Templars are. You know the ones that aren’t currently sitting in my work room.”

“They might come after you.”

“I’ll just tell Aloise to take the week off. I’ll be fine. Now go stop those assholes. And Zealot. Try anything, step even one foot out of line, and I’ll make whatever Andromache can do look like child’s play.”

Nicky nodded, following, grabbing his mask, and putting it on his face, feeling disgusted with himself as he did so. “I’m sorry, Lucia,” he thought. “I should have known better.”

But he hadn’t. He climbed on the bike behind the hero, praying they would be on time.


	7. Chapter 7

  
  
  
  


Nile had to admit she was pissed. Celeste and Quynh got to go with Andy to take care of the bomb threat, while she was sent ‘for information’ to the team’s criminal informant. Especially now that Joe had run off with their prisoner. She knew she was new and inexperienced, but it’s not like she couldn’t look after herself.

She’d wanted to argue for herself, make it clear to Andy that she woudln’t take stupid risks. But then she realized just how pissed Andy was. Not just pissed, worried sick at the same time. Oh Andy wouldn’t ever admit to the second as she’d ranted about putting Joe on house arrest when he got back. But she sounded just like Mom had, when she’d go on about Nile or Sol when they hand’t bothered to call and tell her that they were going to be home late, or when Sol had grabbed the car without asking first, and they got a call from the cops that Sol was in a holding cell because his friends had been driving too fast.

Nile wasn’t sure what she thought of it, on one hand, Andy was the most experienced hero on the planet, and if she believed Zealot was up to something, she was probably right. But on the other, what if not at least checking in on his claims could get people killed.

She hadn’t had the chance to get to know Lykon, the only time she met him, was when Quynh took her to visit the man in his own home. When she’d seen him rolling around in his new chair, spinning just before he stopped half an inch away from Quynh’s feet.

Celeste had jumped in his lap, letting him take her down the hall to test the ramps. But Nile had felt awkward, sitting in a stranger’s place with no idea what to say.

There was a closed sign on Booker’s store, but as she was already annoyed enough as it were, she wasn’t planning to come back later, after screwing up the one mission that Andy had trusted her with.

Kicking in the door seemed the only option.

It also turned out to be a major mistake, as she found herself targeted by about twenty laser scopes half a second later.

“Oh fuck.”

She curled up, hoping her bullet proof jacket, along with her own invulnerability would do enough to keep her from being scourged. Thankfully the barrage stopped ten seconds later.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing.” Book was standing in the back, his arms crossed.

“Uhm, hi.”

“River, right?”

She was about to disagree when she remembered that she wasn’t supposed to share her real name with strangers. And for all that the others saw Booker as an ally, she didn’t know if he was one of the ones she could trust. “Yes.” He stared at her, and smirked, obviously recognizing her hesitation. 

Fuck, the lasers had actually been bad enough to mess up her jacket. Not her though. It scared her, knowing just how much of her increasing invulnerability would end up hurting Andy. It only made her want to be alongside Andy even more, so she could keep her safe like she was supposed to.

“Didn’t Andy warn you, not to barge in here.”

Thinking back, Andy had done just that, and had told her to ‘ring the bell’ if the store was closed. 

Nile blushed, more than a bit embarrassed, that she had to be saved by the guy she’d been hoping to intimidate.

Which Andy had also warned her not to do.

Booker didn’t even seem angry with her, just tired. He looked exhausted in the way that you’d see a man who hadn’t slept in weeks, and was now ready to grab a bottle that still wouldn’t let him doze off. 

“What do you want, River?”

“Andy said Joe was here with Zealot.”

“Yes, Joe already talked to Copley about that.”

“So?”

Booker looked at the screen that lit up as he did so, several machines moved as if out of the wall and let him add some info into it without him touching even a single keyboard. She wondered if he even owned one.. 

“How?”

“I’m a technopath, technology does what I want it to.”

“Any technology?” Nile was now really wishing she’d listened a bit more when Andy had warned her on how to approach Booker. Like say, if she’d left her phone behind.

“I’m not looking through your private pictures, Freeman. Though you really shouldn't use your Mom and brother as your screensaver on a phone you plan to take with you on missions.”

Nile clenched her eyes shut. “I hadn’t been able to change it yet.”

“I just did. You can thank me later when some actual bad guy gets their hands on it.”

“You…” She wanted to be pissed at him for touching her phone, even if just with his mind. Thing is though, he was right. Any bad guy that got their hands on her phone, would instantly get a look at the two people who meant the most to her in the entire world..

“The bombs Andromache is dealing with are a distraction.”

“They are what? Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s all on the stick Zealot brought with him. Joe’s working with him to stop the real plan, while you guys can go stop the bombs before they kill people as well.”

“Andy says Zealot can’t be trusted.”

Booker sat down, and grabbed a smoke out of a pack, turning it around between his fingers a few times before crushing it. 

“He wasn’t lying when he told Joe he wanted to help.”

  
  


****

Booker stared at the young girl, he knew she was only a little over ten years younger than him, but compared to his own life, she was just a kid. She was too young to realize just how much he could do. But then he couldn’t blame her, it wasn’t like he bragged about it. 

“Lie detector in the walls.” It was easier to say than to explain all the algorithms, parameters, and that even then it was mostly a gut feeling.

“Where Zealot is concerned, I don’t think he’s lying. I wish he were, it would make things a lot easier, but as far as I can see, he’s telling the truth as far as he knows it. His bosses might be lying to get him to do just what he’s doing. But Zealot himself really just seems to want only one thing, to help stop his own people from killing off over half the city.” 

“So Joe could still be walking into a trap.”

“I’m keeping an eye on them. I gave them coms, put some locator tech in them that lets me know exactly where they are. I don’t know for sure what’s up with Di Genova’s change of heart. But right now, he’s the only backup Joe’s got.” Booker needed a drink, he wanted to grab a bottle and pretend he’d never seen the information on the stick Zealot had given him.

But now that he had..

She sat down next to him, he hadn’t been this close to a woman as gorgeous as her in years. She flung her braids out of the way as he told her the plan, it was just a small moment, but it reminded him so much of his wife, it was like his mind flew back to the past, and his photographic memory projected an image of Amélie over Nile’s face. ,He shivered as he had to stop her from storming in after the other two idiots. This was why he wasn’t a hero himself. He was too old to run into danger, too smart, too much of a coward.

Looking at Zealot’s actions it was far too easy to remember what it had been like to rub a bit of the top of some rich people’s bank accounts, when his wife and children needed the money. He’d believed he was doing the right thing, that he was protecting his family. Amélie had been so weak by then, and there was no other way to afford a good hospital. Not just a public one, where she’d just be a number, but one of the good ones, with a private room, and a private physician who’d treat her like the queen she was.

It let them afford a room that didn’t look like the front halls of hell, and where the boys wouldn’t get scared, more scared than they already were, when they came in with drawings for mommy.

When the cops came and dragged him off for his sins, he’d let them keep on thinking he was just a hacker. Nothing but an ordinary thief, just so they wouldn’t lock him up in super prison. That had been until they did a test of all the inmates and his powers were revealed.

He’d been given a choice, do out his time with a government team or go to supermax. He’d thought it had been an easy choice. He hadn’t realized he’d signed up for suicide. And once he did, he ran like hell. They hadn’t let him of course. 

As far as he knew they were still after him. By the time he got back home, looking for his boys, his wife was dead, and his boys… they were seperated, all in different homes with new parents, screwing them over again and again, until they cursed his name when he tried to get them back.

And then… Jean Pierre had been no more than sixteen. Just a kid, a damn stupid kid. Some asshole had told him he could make some easy money, all he’d have to do was carry packages. No one paid attention to kids running around.

He hadn’t even known what he was carrying when some Crusader killed him.

Booker had never even known which of them had done the actual job. It didn’t matter, as far as he was concerned, they were all guilty.

He wasn’t a hero, he wasn’t hero material. Not like Andy, or Joe, but there was no way he was going to let a real hero like the kid in front of him get herself killed, or that he was going to let Joe on his own with no one but a Templar to watch his back.

Not now, not ever


	8. Chapter 8

“What the hell’s wrong with you people?”

Zealot stared at him, seeming almost confused.

“I mean, this place, it doesn’t even ‘look’ like a bad guy lair. Next you’re going to tell me that you don’t even kick puppies inside?”

Zealot didn’t smile, for which Joe was almost grateful, but he could see the corner of the man’s mouth lifting just the slightest bit.

The biggest surprise in regards to the Crusader’s lair, is that it wasn’t in one of the hundreds of abandoned warehouses covering the extent of the city. It’s odd really, how you came to almost expect the bad guys to be in some dark damp crime ridden area. It was a silly thought, especially when he’d known for years that the worst criminals usually were the ones living on top of the world, hidden by their wealth and privilege more so than anything else.

It's just that the skyscraper they were currently looking up at, missed pretty much any of the aesthetics you’d expect from a villain lair. Even one masquerading as the headquarters of a vigilante organization.They were standing in the shadows in an alley across the street, and part of Joe wanted to make a full frontal attack, take down the entryway and get rid of any of the guards on the way up. But Nicky had already made it clear that they couldn't do that.

The building didn’t just serve as a cover for the Crusaders, it was an actual company, and most of the people working there had no idea that the company’s CEO, Steven Merrick, was also the main founder and leader of the Crusader Organisation. Most of the guards working in the lobby downstairs would have no idea of what they were involved with. They were just working people, trying to earn a living, thinking they worked for a Pharmaceutical Company that had only just recently managed to find a cure for cancer.

Attacking them would be pointless, and go in against everything Joe believed in. But that meant they had to find a way in, without harming any of the guards, until they actually got to the level where the bad guys were hiding.

“So how do you guys get in?”

“Technically, I have a job as a security consultant for Merrick international, but I’m sure my security clearance might have gotten revoked when I left.”

“Did you hear that Book?”

“We did.” Joe winced as he heard Nile’s voice. Oh God, please don’t let Andy be there as well.

“Nile, I…”

“Yeah yeah, Booker explained it. But Andy’s still going to be pissed when she gets her hands on you. She’s just hoping that that Templar with you, won’t end up killing you before she can get the chance to do so herself.”

“Here’s hoping.”

Zealot mumbled something that vaguely sounded like a complaint that he wasn’t even planning anything. Joe gently patted him on the shoulder. “I’m sure if you were planning something, that you’d at least wait until we’re inside your headquarters before you backstab me.”

“I wouldn't….”

Joe didn’t wait for any more protests before he refocused his attention on Booker. 

“So what do you think, Booker, can you get us in?”

“Already working on it. Why do you think I gave you those coms, all I needed was to get something close enough to hitch a ride into their network.The closer you can get one of those coms to their systems, the better” Things were silent for a moment, just long enough for Joe to start worrying. He wasn’t sure what he could do, but figured trying to connect his com to the wifi was worth the try. It helped when Nicky gave him the password.

“Man, the security they’ve got running is terrible. If I’d known it was that easy to break into Crusader HQ, I’d have run a Ddos on them years ago.”

Oh yes, the fun part of having the usually neutral Booker on their side. Joe could imagine the Crusader’s tech flunking out on them in the middle of n operation, laser guns sputtering out in the middle of a fight, their cars driving into a wall because the brakes stopped working, or their GPS told them to drive straight into a river… it was fun to dream

“Don’t get overconfident..” Zealot interrupted. “The pharmaceutical company is on a different network than that of the Crusaders, and even they’ve got different levels to get into.”

They could both hear Booker curse in French in the background when it seemed he was hitting into those very walls Zealot was talking about.

“Book, can you.”

“Looking at it now; You’re right, that wall is far stronger, I’m working to get through it, but it’s going to take a while.It might help if you get me further into the building” Joe could hear the struggle in Booker’s voice.No matter how much the man tried to hide it.

“Be careful, if they find out what you’re doing, they might trace your link back to you.” Zealot said.

“Now you’re telling us.” Nile said, but Booker was already too deep in to respond. 

“I can’t go in looking like this.” Joe grumbled. 

“Gus, the guard at the gate might let you in, he’s a fan.” Joe snorted at that. That’s the thing though, these men in the lobby had no idea what they were guarding, and he couldn't risk their lives, no matter how much trouble it’d cause them. He wondered if Zealot would risk them. If Zealot cared about them. 

As far as he knew, Zealot could call security on him the second they entered the building. He had nothing but Zealot’s word that the man wasn’t going to betray him. After Lykon, he knew he shouldn't trust him. And yet… 

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to work. “Joe hesitated a moment before taking off his mask, and using the holographic projector he was wearing to make his costume look like a shirt and jeans. It was the standard setting, and something he was most inclined to wear on his time off. In a way it made him feel almost naked. Like he wasn’t Al-Tayyib, the larger than life superhero. Looking like this, he was just your everyday artist and teacher, Yusuf Al Kaysani. A kid who used to get teased by his classmates because he’d rather write poems, and help take care of the guinea pig rather than run around in the school yard or mess around on the streets.. 

It’s what had earned him his nickname really. Al-Tayyib, the good, the delicate, the teacher’s pet. 

It wasn’t his fault that most Western media didn’t get the full meaning of the name.

Zealot seemed to be careful not to stare at him too much. Though Joe appreciated the effort, it was only going to make them look even more suspicious. The man seemed to hesitate for a moment before heading towards a dumpster next to them. Joe was already staring at the man, ready to make a joke about what a dumpster fire his entire group was, when Zealot pressed a button on the thing, and a secret compartment opened at the bottom, releasing a set of guard uniforms. Zealot took off his cape and hood, leaving him standing there in a skin tight outfit with a kevlar layer that hugged his ribs to a degree that armor like that shouldn't be allowed to do. Joe hadn’t realized how lucky he’d been so far that the cape had hid so much of the man’s body. Joe could now see the use of the cape, without it, Zealot could probably be pulled out of a line up for the shape of that ass alone. 

He shook off the shought and tried to look away as Nicky grabbed a uniform out of the slab and pulled it on over his costume.. After that he pushed the cape and hood into a tool bag that he also pulled out of the compartment.

“Merrick has things like these set up all over the city.” The words sounded almost embarrassed. “It’s supposed to pull less attention to us while we’re on a job.”

Well that was one way of doing it. Joe had to admit that the pullover definitely covered the man more than his tunic did, it sure as hell didn’t hug his curves like the tights he wore underneath, and what he could see of it with the cape gone.

Joe shook himself, that… most definitely wasn’t something he should be thinking about where someone like Zealot was concerned. No matter how attractive the guy was, he was still a violent criminal and murderer. It’s just that the more time Joe spent with him, the more he couldn't help but think that there was more to the man, than just the organisation he’d been a part of. 

He let Zealot carry the lead as they headed up to the building, counting on Booker’s help to get them inside. Knowing just how insane he had to be, to trust the man in the first place.

Zealot seemed to almost shrink as they went through the door, when the guard at the door spotted them, he waved them in. 

“Damn it, Nicky, you’re a sight for sore eyes. It’s been a mess all day.”

“Sorry about that, Gus. I just had some urgent stuff to handle.”

“So who’s the newbie?”

“Joe, Joseph Jones. Nicky said you guys had job openings?”

“There’s always job openings around here. Don’t know what Merrick does to scare you people off. But it’ll be good if he stops stealing them from our department.”

Joe snorted at that. “Glad to hear I’ve got a chance then.”

It was weird, hearing Zealot, or ‘Nicky’ talk to the guy, almost as if he was just … normal. Looking at him in the kind of overall that made you almost ignore him. Sure it was still a potentially violent job, but it felt legit, made him look like an average working person with nothing to hide, rather than the threat lurking behind it.

Away from the Templar uniform, Nicky looked almost small, like someone you could just ignore. In a way it was terrifying in the hint it gave at how easily Zealot could blend in into a regular crowd, at how easy it would be to underestimate him, or to forget how much blood there was on those fragile seeming hands.

They moved towards the elevator, Joe kept expecting for someone to try and stop them, but Nicky used his badge and logged them both in without anyone protesting. It made Joe wonder how many others Zealot had brought into the Crusader’s ranks.

“So is that how it works?” You promise people a job and lure them into the Crusaders? Joe wasn’t even sure what he was asking. Zealot stared at him with that unflinching gaze. He had no idea what color the man’s eyes were, they were like deep pools, almost impossible to see the bottom.

“We also offer dental.” Joe stopped in place, breaking out in a snicker as they got into the elevator. He shook his head. He shouldn't like the guy, he knew it, he’d be sending him to jail after all this was over. 

“Evil. I knew it.”

He was fucked.


	9. Chapter 9

Nicky kept waiting for someone to stop them, for one of the guards upstairs to see them come in on the security cameras. He warned the hero to be careful before he pressed the code that would get them to the right floors. It was almost shameful it was to see how easy it had been to get through the base’s defenses. Even with Booker to ease the way for them electronically, someone, anyone should have stopped him to check his badge. Someone, anyone, should have realized who he was, and how he’d left the base the last time he’d been here. 

Instead they were flagged in with barely no one to bother them on their way in.

The scary part is that that was part of the appeal. How welcoming the Order had been. How little they stood on protocol, or so they claimed. How all the ranks were supposed to be equal, until you got to the Templars.

Just how many of his former friends, acquaintances really, had he gotten into the Crusaders. How many of them did he have left that weren’t twisted by the Order’s ideology?

The elevator music accompanying them on the way up was almost foreboding in its blandness.

It’s how he himself had been recruited. He’d said just the right words, the right complaints, about criminals getting off too easy. And at first it had been nice to be heard. The group had taken him in its arms, especially after his uncle had died, and he’d had no one left that cared one bit about what happened to him outside of work.

He’d been sitting there in his shitty apartment, eating a box of tasteless microwaved food in front of the television, just about ready to put a gun to his head and get it over with, when Keane had shown up at his door. They’d watched the game. Nicky hadn’t cared about it, but Keane did, and Nicky had been so glad not to be alone, that he’d gone to the kitchen and made them both some snacks. The week after Keane had brought some of his friends along. 

They’d made some sick jokes, stuff Nicky should have put a stop to - homophobic jokes, racist comments… But Nicky had been so miserable, stuck in a life that held little to no meaning, that he’d been too scared to lose what company Keane and his friends gave him, by opening his mouth and telling them that he himself was gay. When Keane eventually got it out of him, he just called Nicky a good sport, and the gay jokes got less bad. Or maybe he just got so used to them, that he’d refused to let himself be bothered by the malice underneath.

It was weird, these people were supposed to be his friends, their company all he had left, but he far preferred the friendly banter with people like Gus, over those he was supposed to see as his brothers. Even as Keane and his friends mocked Gus for wasting his life sitting in a lobby. Gus at least had recognized him when he came in, even if no one told him that Nicky had turned against the company.. 

It was never anything they said, just a joke, just harmless ribbing. Nicky hated it, but he had so few friends…

Had that been the first step towards going too far? Putting up with crap like that, then putting up with killing people, because they had to, because it was the right thing to do. Or so they told him at least.

He wasn’t even asked to volunteer for the experiments with Dr Kozak. Keane had signed him up for it, Nicky and a few of their other friends. Keane had called it an ‘opportunity’, not like Nicky had to worry about going sterile from the radiation, he’d said mockingly.

It was a chance at power, or so they said. Nicky had said no, he’d wanted them to stop. But he could see it in their eyes, that no matter what he said, they wouldn’t be listening.

Keane had stood there watching as Nicky screamed, he’d helped get rid of the bodies of those that didn’t survive. Barely even spoke to the ones that did, but didn’t get powers out of it. So many of them had their bodies devastated by the process. Keane didn’t go through the procedure himself, not until a few months later, after the kinks were worked out, and they knew for sure whom the serum would work on. 

Nicky hadn’t said a word, instead he’d taken Keane’s hand, let the man pull him into a hug, with Keane patting him on the back. 

“See, I knew you’d be one of the strong ones.” is all the man had said. The smile on his face was not quite reaching his eyes..

Nicky had wanted to make a run for it, but he’d been too scared of himself, too scared of the power inside of him, the electricity that leaked out, even at Keane, stinging him a bit as the man touched him. Nicky had been so scared. This was his best friend he was hurting, what if he hurt anyone else.

He let them train him, he took the armor, he took the name, he was a good soldier. This cause had to be just, cause if it wasn’t, then what was his life even worth?

He wondered if that’s how Al-Tayyib had gotten his powers. If someone had dragged him onto a table and cut into him? If they’d injected him with a barely tested serum? He didn’t think the man was, the heroes weren’t supposed to be like that. 

He didn’t bother to think about the man’s name. The hero had no reason to trust Nicky with his real name. It’s just the way he called himself Joe, it sounded more true than any other part of him.

Nicky wondered if he’d met someone like Al-Tayyib instead of Keane, would life have been different? If he’d run after the experiments, instead of letting Keane tell him they were necessary, would the heroes have taken him in? Even after all he’d done as a Crusader? They might have, they were the heroes after all.

But Nicky had thrown away that chance, and now… now he was lucky that this man cared enough to give him one last shot at doing at least one thing right. Even if it meant that Nicky would have to give his life to keep the man safe. Especially if it meant that.

The bell rang as the door slid open. There were no armed forces awaiting them. Nicky wondered how much of that was Booker’s work. If he’d gotten into the Crusader’s servers yet.

He didn’t know if he should trust Booker, but then again, LeLivre didn’t really have a reason to trust him either. And whatever bad choices the hacker might have made, they were nothing compared to Nicky’s own screw ups. 

“So where do we go?” Al-Tayyib asked him. “Is there a procedure for heading into your evil lair? Some kind of evil handshake?” 

“There’s a dressing room, to leave the overall.”

“How high is the chance we can sneak around with no one noticing what we’re doing?”

“It depends?”

Al-Tayyib stared at him. 

“On how close we need to get your friend to the computers.”

That was a question the Crusaders had wondered about for years. The limits of Booker’s powers, and just how many programs, how much hardware was needed to keep him out. They had tried to test the man, but as they’d never been able to capture him, those tests had always come back as inconclusive. 

It stood to reason that even if Booker answered his question, that Joe wouldn’t be willing to give Nicky that answer.

“The mainframes run into the walls all around us. If that’s enough for him, then we’ve accomplished that part of the work.”

Joe seemed to be listening to something before he answered.

“So if that problem is solved, what else?”

“If we’re on time, Firebrand and the others would still be around, and we’d be spotted any second. If we’re too late, then no one is here, but then there’s no use of hanging around in the first place.”

“What? 

“Your friend could get the data once he entered the database, can he not? He does not need us to stay here, does he?”

“Fuck, no.” Joe whispered. Which meant that Booker had never needed more than an entry point, he’d get back out on his own. Which made him even more dangerous than the Crusaders had already believed him to be. It sent chills down his spine just thinking of it.

It also meant that they might be wasting their time.

“If they’re already spreading the drugs, then we need to be on the streets to stop them.”

“Ah well, no reason to bother with this disguise then, is there?”

And that’s when Joe dropped the hologram, not even thinking about all the cameras that had been recording his face all along. Nicky hoped that Booker was working on that, or that people would assume the image of the hero’s face had been as fake, as that of his clothes.

Nicky wanted to scream at him not to be an idiot, but it was already too late, and the guards were already heading their way. Nicky wanted to help, but he didn’t have his sword to focus his electric fire. If he started shooting now, he could hit Al-Tayyib instead of the ones he was actually targeting.. He dropped the bag he was carrying, shot down one of the guards and grabbed the man’s gun, using it to make several of the other guards duck for cover.

Al-Tayyib was pulling water out of the air, using it to create a flood to use against the guards washing them away. Nicky barely managed to shoot one of the grunts before he could hit the superhero in the back. He knelt down next to the man, before they left the room. He flinched as he recognized him. Tom had been a painfully shy guy who’d been part of Keane’s group once upon a time. The kind of guy who laughed along with the group, but you could see the flinch in his eyes as he did so. When the procedure didn’t give him powers, Keane had dumped him like dead weight. Nicky had tried to talk to him afterwards, but the guy seemed almost scared of him. Nicky had thought they were friends once upon a time. And now he’d killed him. 

Nicky closed the dead man’s eyes and moved on, making sure to have Al-Tayyib’s back.

Someone shot him, but his armor protected him. Al-Tayyib was about ready to unleash a full on attack,and Nicky started to let the power build up inside of him. It was then that he realized something, remembering all the times he’d fought Al-Tayyib, how the hero's water would conduct his electricity, and how the man had eventually insulated his costume against Nicky’s powers. 

Nicky knelt down and put his hands in the water flowing across the floor, pushing his powers through it. As he did so, every Crusader in the area who wasn’t wearing some kind of rubber soles got hit with a sting of electricity, most of them went down in one go, as they were hit with waves of pure water.

Nicky checked around, the scent of burning flesh coming off some of the people. He’d been careful to keep the charge low, but still…

“Nice, nice barbecue you got there, whole platter of charred meat in one go.” Nicky wasn’t sure if the man was happy, shocked, ha, or horrified.

“It worked.”

Then a smile appeared on Al-Tayyib’s face. “I’m sure hoping you only did that because you remembered my suit is insulated?”

“Maybe?”

Al-Tayyib moved on to the nearest computer sitting high enough not to be damaged by the shockwave.

“Booker, are you in?”

“Almost.” the computerized voice sounded. 

“Should we…”

“I’ve sent a link to your coms with the updated locations for the drugs. “ Booker continued. “Now get going, they’re planning to start spreading them soon.”

Nicky stared back, at the men moaning and trembling in pain all around him. 

His friends, his family. Men he’d shared bread with. Men who’d been willing to let thousands of innocents be murdered.

“Nicky… we have to go.” Nicky nodded. He didn’t even think about the name the hero called him or the bag he left behind.


	10. Chapter 10

Nile hated this feeling of twiddling her thumbs, doing nothing, and sitting there, bored out of her head and worried sick over all the others. She knew she couldn’t leave, but it was hard not to feel like she was wasting her time. 

Booker had been sitting there for over an hour now, his face a blank slate, and it was getting worrisome. Sure he told her that would happen, that if he really had to go deep into a network, especially in a remote location, that his body would be vulnerable. She just hadn’t expected him to become this unresponsive. Outwardly he looked almost like he was meditating, or half asleep and pretending he was doing the first.. Quynh had tried to get her into it, but it wasn’t really Nile’s thing. She by far preferred cardio or calisthetics.

Nile checked in with Celeste to see what the others were up to. It seems like Andy was dealing with yet another bomb threat, which they had to take seriously, cause the last one had done quite a bit of damage. Hundreds if not thousands could have died, if Quynh hadn’t held up the building long enough for Andy to lead the evacuation..

Andy was pissed as hell at Joe, said they could have used him. Instead of having him go after whatever wild goose chase that Zealot had them on. Nile had sent them the info Booker had found. But Andy was still not quite sure it was real.

Nile had offered to come help with the evacuations, but Andy had told her to stay put, in the unlikely case that they did find something real, the Crusaders might come after Booker. And though Booker would deny it to hell and back, he was one of them. He’d helped out the Old Guard on more than one occasion, and the team would be hurt bad if they lost him.

Booker was still just sitting there, occasionally a flash of light would appear in his eyes. Nile stopped staring at him and got up to the coffeemaker, using Booker’s expensive espresso set to make herself a nice strong black coffee.

She’d received some texts from Celeste about what Andy and the others were up to. It only made her wish even more that she was with them, doing something useful, acting like a hero. No matter how she felt like a fake whenever she wore the suit. .Nobody had ever told her that being a superhero would be this boring.

The game on her phone was still kicking her ass.

  
  
  


**********   
  


  
  
  
  


Booker barely ducked out of the way of an anti virus attack looking like a flamethrower held by a faceless man in a janitorial outfit.. He knew it was just a visualisation that his mind created, but that wouldn’t make it hurt any less if he’d let it hit him. There was information all around, and his mind devoured all of it, ones and zeroes that told him about day to day dealings of Merrick Pharmaceuticals, illicit dealings by some of the people working for Merrick, and some porn that he’d never be able to unsee. 

But he knew the real stuff would be behind the wall, the wall that up until now he hadn’t been able to get through. He’d created key after key, while sending dragons of destruction to scorch up a distraction from what he was actually doing. The very fact that the wall was as strong as it was only made him more certain he was on the right track. And that whatever info Di Genova had brought them was only the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

He smirked as he finally found a lock, now all he had to do, was find a key that fit it. He calculated the lock, using Merrick’s own computers to calculate possible codes. It was shocking just how quickly he ended up finding it. You’d think that someone who claimed to be a genius like Merrick, would have at least somewhat better sense where passwords were concerned.

Once he did though, the contracts he found, ready to be signed were enough to make him want to throw up. He was just reading through them when something hit him from behind. He ducked and rolled and armoured up before he could get attacked again.

The knights coming at him seemed drenched in virtual blood, he smirked and motioned at them to come at him, while building his armor until he was the size of Godzilla. This was his terrain, and no two bit IT worker was going to get in his way. He could hear Nile’s voice soothing in the back of his mind, allowing it to anchor him down as he got ready to rumble.

  
  


*******

One moment everything was the same, the next Booker seemed to be going through some kind of attack. He was spasming for a few moments. Nile desperately looked around for anything she could do, demanding the computers for answers. But they were as quiet as they’d been in the previous hour.

Booker had given her access to the mainframe, so she could use the monitors, but right now all they showed was the local news. The main story so far seemed to be the two explosions, and the threat of more. The police were advising people to stay at home, to stay of the streets, but that of course didn’t mean people were listening.

She knelt down next to Book, desperate to at least keep him from choking on his tongue. 

“Book?” What was she supposed to do? 

She didn't want to hurt the Frenchman,, Booker hadn't said if she should touch him, or if there was some way to get him out of his trance. Hell, with how he was helping Joe, she could hurt not just Booker, but Joe as well. It made it worse, sitting here, with no idea what to do.

She tried to ask him, but the complete silence coming from him was no help whatsoever..

She was just about to call Copley and ask him for help when the alarms went off.

The monitors turned on, and she could see three of the Templars standing in front of the door. Thankfully not Firebrand, but even lesser Templars were still more than she’d ever taken on on her own. 

She said a quick prayer and placed herself in between Booker and the door, waiting for whatever would come their way. She was barely ready when one of them ghosted through the door. Nile grabbed her taser, and ordered the computers to start the shop’s full defensive mode, hoping it would work.

When it did, it shocked her almost as much as it did the woman falling to the floor, as she walked straight into a force field.


	11. Chapter 11

Joe wished he knew how Nicky was doing. The guy had just taken down some of his own people. He didn't even want to think of how Nicky had jumped in to guard his back, or how well they'd worked together.

The worst part was how hard it was to keep reminding himself that this wasn't a teammate he was working with, or even a friend on the wrong side of the law like Booker. Zealot was a bad guy, a supervillain. 

It's just that Nicky wasn't.

Nicky was a confused well meaning man trying to do the right thing, who had fallen in with the wrong crowd. And Joe so desperately wanted to believe this was all real. Because whether he liked to admit it or not, he very much liked Nicky, even knowing that no matter how this ended, he'd have to arrest the guy and send him to jail.

He tried to remember Tobias grandmother, the way the woman had looked as she knelt over her grandson’s body. He tried to remember the mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters of others that the Crusaders had deemed worthy of death. And how many of them had died at Zealot’s own hands. But then Nicky would say something, and sound so damn earnest, that made it hard to remember all that.

The warehouse, unlike Crusader headquarters did match all the right aesthetics of a bad guy lair, damp and dark, set near the harbor, in an area where nobody would be stupid enough to approach you in the dark. Nicky was pulling off his overall, straightening the tunic underneath. It was a bit singed and torn where he'd been hit by a bullet earlier. 

The red cross stood out on his chest. Luring any aim towards the part of his body that held the strongest protection. Blood stained the white of the tunic. Joe forced himself to focus on that. 

This wasn't a friend, this alliance was temporary.

"So how do you want to handle this?"

Joe considered his answer. Nicky stood still, waiting.

"We go in quick and fast, we destroy any drug we find. We can think of evidence after."

Nicky nodded, quietly touching the mask on his face. The damn thing should make it easier to see the other as an enemy, especially since they hid those eyes of his, or the hurt in them whenever Joe opened his mouth and tore down any argument about the Crusader’s supposed good intentions. It should be easier to look at those white lenses and see him as Zealot. But even the mask looked different without the hood. Less ominous, far less inhuman, when Joe could spot the way Nicky held his breath before speaking, the hesitations, the twitch at the corner of his eyes that wasn’t fully hidden by his mask.

Nicky put his hands on the door, electric shockwaves coursed through the metal, destroying the magnetic lock.

Joe focused on the water particles in the air, pulling them out and curling them up as a whirlpool ready for attack. The location here actually played to his strengths as they were within near reach of the river, the fog around them full of water, ready at his hands. He was about to push the door open, but Nicky beat him to it, putting himself in between Joe and whoever was inside. Joe was about to tell him he didn't have to, as a blast of flames burst at them from above.

Nicky pushed him aside, and stopped the full blast with a storm of electrical energy, barely managing to hold back the fire.

It reflected on Nicky’s face, and Joe could see Nicky cringe under the attack, that set in his jaw making it clear he was getting ready to strike back.

Joe shivered as he spotted the small army of Crusaders surrounding them, ready to attack.

"We were expecting you, traitor. I should have known you're too much of a coward to do so on your own." Firebrand gloated as he shot off another blast. Nicky barely managed to hold it from hitting Joe, taking the full power upon himself, absorbing it into his own electrical field, Joe formed a shield of ice around the two of them to protect them both. If Andy were here, she’d scoff at that, and jump right out of it, to face Firebrand head on. Celeste would let him, while getting ready for a mental strike, while Quynh would build up a magical attack, and use the distraction he gave their opponents to destroy anyone facing them.

Nicky though, Nicky just stood there, electrical sparkles coming off his hands.

Nicky and Joe shared a glance before Joe fired off another blast of water, Firebrand laughed it off till he was hit by the electricity coursing through the water. The man was lucky that his boots were made of rubber. It's all that kept him from turning into toast. It wasn’t that much of a shock, It wasn’t uncommon for the Templars to have Firebrand and Zealot working together, they were two of the Templars’ heavy hitters, it’s biggest threats. It stood to reason that most of Firebrand’s outfit was insulated.

"Get them!" Firebrand yelled. Nicky rolled over and out of the way before he was hit by a barrage of bullets, getting into the middle of the crowd, keeping himself from becoming an easy target, as Joe defended himself with an iceshield.

Joe grinned and got into the moment, giving both Nicky and himself a network of ice slides to use as a mixture of shields and parcours; something was off though. Zealot generally had a better handle on his electricity, and yet now something seemed to hold Nicky back from going full blast. That's when Joe realized it, Nicky was still missing his sword.

He remembered all the times the two of them had fought, and that no matter how well matched they were, the few times he'd almost managed a win on the other, it had been because he'd managed to separate Zealot from his sword.

Right now, Nicky was holding back, obviously trying to keep not just from getting killed, but stopping himself from killing any of their foes as well while fighting with both hands tied behind his back. 

It’s not that Zealot wasn’t still powerful. In fact the problem was the exact opposite. Without something to focus his energy, Zealot’s powers were like a thunderstorm, with no way to know what it would destroy. That was just fine when you didn’t mind about the damage, when any warm body was fine for target practice. But it was different when you were fighting side by side with someone, and were trying not to get them killed. Or when you were attacking your former friends, and didn’t want to kill your drinking buddies.

Nicky needed precision, rather than a blast that went everywhere around him. Joe could see it in the way that Nicky kept looking around as he fought, Not a single blast went out in full strength even as he sendt surges of power through his hands as he grabbed hold of their opponents. Using his skill in martial arts as much as his powers. But in the end he was just one unarmed man going up against an army of fully armored soldiers with all the same skills Nicky himself had. They forced Nicky to come way too close to them in order to do so, making him vulnerable to their own attacks, where Joe was able to manage to maintain a distance while creating sculptures into weaponry.

It was then that he saw it, a metal bar, he surrounded it with and aimed it straight at Nicky, who grabbed hold of it, before he even realized what he had in his hands.Using the ice covered bar to focus his electricity and aim it straight at Joe.

Joe was about to defend himself, pissed that he’d fallen for a trap that Andy had been warning him for from the start, when the burst of electricity went straight over his shoulder and at someone coming at him from behind. He turned around to watch Firebrand fall down to the floor, over a dozen feet below them.

"You saved me."

Nicky was staring down at Firebrand, who was groaning as he lay there on the floor, several feet below them..

"We're on the same side, aren't we?"

Joe smiled in relief, they were, weren't they?


	12. Chapter 12

  
  
  
  


Nicky marveled at the beauty of the structures Al-Tayyib had managed to create all around them. The way it towered in crystal stairs, with long silver walls and deep white slides. The shiny ice looked almost like a crystal palace, like something out of a fairytale. And in between them stood the hero himself, who looked gorgeous in blue, surrounded by rainbows as the light reflected in the ice he used for shields.

They had fought over a dozen times before, yet neither had ever fully won a fight, and admittedly this wasn't the first time Nicky had stood awed at the amount of power and beauty held by the other man. Nicky managed to take down some of the other Crusaders, calling them by name. Desperate to get at least some of them to see sense and understand what was going on. But none of them were willing to hear a word he said.Once you turned against the Order, any word you said was blasphemy.

He saw a bar of ice heading his way, and he grabbed it without even thinking about it, trusting that the hero knew what he was doing

It was then that he realized that Keane had managed to fly up behind Al-Tayyib while the man was distracted with the rod he'd sent to Nicky. Nicky figured the ice might melt under the power, but at least Keane wouldn't be able to hurt Joe... wouldn't be able to hurt Al-Tayyib.

It was as Nicky sent raw electricity through the bar that he realized it was far heavier than it would be if it were just ice, that's when he felt the steel appear under the melting ice.

Joe looked at him,a sting of raw unmitigated sorrow in his eyes as Nicky fired, betrayal fading away to a smile when he realized Nicky's real target. Nicky couldn't even feel hurt that Joe thought he might have turned on him. They were enemies, Joe barely knew him. And Nicky had already turned on the people that had trusted him. How was Joe to be sure that Nicky wouldn't do the same to him?

It didn't matter that Nicky would die before he'd let this man get hurt, that he'd suffer through anything to keep it from happening to this good man, who had given him a chance when no one else would have.The fight continued, but with Firebrand gone, the remainder of the Crusaders didn't stand a chance against the joined force of the two of them. By the end they stood in a pool of water. Nicky shivered, as Joe let the water particles flood the air, drying out the floor, leaving behind a bunch of soaked unconscious men in white armor that looked far too much like his own and a few crates filled with small plastic bags filled with white powder.

Firebrand was nowhere to be seen.

Nicky placed his hand on the crate, melting its content into a crystal of plastic and drugs through sheer heat. 

"Bit of a blob, but nice first try"

He stared at Joe, not understanding.

"The arts and crafts."

"My uncle was never much into the arts, he thought it was useless. and a waste of time." Nicky said. "Looking at your work, I'm starting to see the benefits of it all."

"The world is ugly enough as it is, why not bring some beauty into it."

"Anything coming from someone as beautiful as you, could not be anything else." Nicky muttered before he could stop himself from saying the quiet part out loud.. 

Joe froze. Nicky quickly pulled away. He knew the hero wouldn't reject him over being gay. The man was too kind and pure to be that cruel. But that doesn't mean he'd be glad to have gained the attention of someone as unworthy as Nicky himself.

Thankfully Joe... Al-Tayyib didn't bring it up, pretending like Nicky hadn't said a word. Nicky twirled the bar in his hands, feeling its weight in his hands, getting used to it;

The com crackled, almost as if to draw their attention to it.

"Booker, how is your search going?"

"The search,good, what I'm finding on the other hand... Joe, whatever bad we thought about Merrick, turns out the asshole is even worse."

"What do you mean?" Nicky asked.

"Nice to hear from you too, Di Genova. Glad to see you haven't turned on Joe yet."

"Booker!"

"Yes, Joe.” Booker sounded tired, a sting in his voice, as if there was something he wasn’t saying. Not to Nicky at least. “Merick is up to his neck in buying assets into military hardware, along with creating an antidote to that drug he's planning to spread."

"Nicky just destroyed the drugs in the first warehouse, and took out Firebrand. We think the asshole ran off after that. I was just about to head out and take Nicky to the second."

"Don't waste your time, the contents of the second and third warehouse are on the street already. Merrick used Firebrand to keep you busy, while his flunkies sold the drugs to local dealers. They don't even know what they've got on their hands."

"Fuck"

Nicky shivered, "How can we stop it?" Booker almost growled at hearing Nicky's voice.

"Like I said, "Merrick has an antidote. You need to get it from him or his pet scientist Kozak, and then somehow manage to get it on anyone who might have been affected by the drugs."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"How should I know? Andy's managed to stop two of the explosions but if I look at the plans, Merrick has five more of them set up."

"Did you..."

"Yes, Zealot, now get off the line, so I can talk to my friend, instead of to the idiot that somehow managed to survive being experimented on, and then decided to stay working with the assholes that did that to him, instead of turning against them." There was a moment of silence after his statement. The words sounded cold, making Nicky tremble, making him wonder just how much Booker knew.

"Book."Joe broke in.

"They dragged him in, had him tied to a table for over a month, Joe. Spent weeks trying that woman's serum on him and the others. Most of them died.

"Don't." Flashes of memory came forward, he tried to push them down, tried to cancel out the memory of the screams, his own and that of others

"None of them volunteered, not the ones in the first batch. How long before you stopped begging them to stop DiGenova? Before you pleaded God to just let you die, to end it?"

"Please.."

"Five weeks of suffering, and at the end of it, when you electrocuted one of them when you had every chance to make a run for it, when that bastard that handed you over to them, showed up, you went back to him, why?"

"He was my friend." Keane had been all he had, he’d been the only good thing in Nicky’s life, and he couldn’t...

"Nicky."

"He was my friend, my only friend. I couldn't be alone again." Nicky wanted to get away, to forget all of it, to pretend that none of it had happened, or at least that it had been worth it. But Booker wasn’t willing to do either.

"So why turn on him now?"

"Because I can handle my pain, but I can't let them hurt innocent people.” Nicky turned away from him, wishing he could just tear the com of his wrist, but knowing he couldn’t, not while they were still on the job.. “There was purpose in what they did to me, to the others. But those other people, they didn't sign up to be sacrificed, they didn't ask for it. Them, my sister, they should be protected, not thrown out as if they're nothing."

"Like you were?" Joe gently touched his face, raising Nicky's chin. "You didn't deserve that either."

"I joined the Crusade, I did so willingly."

"Because your friend asked you to, didn't he?"

"Yes."

"Was your friend’s name Keane?"

"Yes." Nicky closed his eyes, he wanted to scream at Booker, to tell him he didn’t understand what it had been like. How much Keane had done for him. How he’d loved the man like a brother, and when that brother betrayed him, how much he’d wanted to believe the man when he said that he’d done it all for Nicky’s own sake. Because it was better than to believe that Keane had just been using him. Joe gently rubbed his shoulder, as if in support. But how could he possibly understand. How much Nicky needed someone to tell him that he was doing good, that he was worth something.

"It was supposed to help people.” is what he finally said, “To do some good." It’s all he’d wanted to do, for people in the city, the world, for his sister, to make his life worth living, to make it worth it that he’d survived when his family hadn’t, to make all the time his uncle had put into him worth it.

“Nicky…”

“I know it didn’t. I get that now, but I just… I thought I was helping people.”


	13. Chapter 13

Joe wasn’t sure whom he wanted to tear to pieces first, Booker or Keane. Keane definitely. 

He wasn’t even sure what he could tell Nicky. He couldn’t console him, or tell him that what he’d done wasn’t that bad. Because it had been. He couldn’t tell Nicky that he could make up for it, because no matter what powers he had, none of them could bring back the dead. 

So here they were, stuck in a hold. Joe wondered if what he was doing was wrong, if he’d somehow taken over Keane’s role in Nicky’s life. Not that Nicky didn't need a good example, but could Joe take the responsibility if he did?

Especially knowing how he was more and more attracted to the man, to a gorgeous man, who clearly returned his interest.

He was pulled out of his thoughts as the steady stream of info Booker had been updating his computer with fell still, and the connection went quiet

“Book? Booker!?”

“Go!” He heard Booker’s voice. “Go get those bastards.” And then the connection fell off.

Nicky was already waiting for him by the bike, Joe jumped on and patted the back. They drove off, and Joe desperately tried not to lean into the warmth of the man behind him.

He remembered how he himself had gotten his powers. The amulet he’d found as a kid, choosing him to be it’s guardian. He knew that if he ever died, the power would go back to the amulet, waiting for the next guardian the amulet thought worthy. It would be no use choosing a successor, cause the amulet chose its guardian, regardless of its current guardian’s wishes.

It was a matter of fate or destiny, or so people told him, which was particularly silly considering how little importance Joe himself put into either of those.

He’d talked to the experts, and they all agreed that the powers the amulet bestowed depended from bearer to bearer, on their needs, their soul, their very being.

When the amulet was needed it would be found, and whoever found it, would have just those powers that were needed for the task at hand. And they would have those powers either until they died, or their mind was so corrupted that they were no longer worthy of the amulet. It had taken Joe more than a while to understand just how versatile water really was.

He hadn’t really had a choice about the powers, but he’d been given a full and fair choice on what to do with those powers. It’s just that once he had them, he couldn't even imagine not using them to help people. According to Andy, that’s what had led the amulet to him in the first place.

It’s part of what made going behind her back like this hurt so damn much. Andromache had been there for him, since he first got his powers, as she came looking for him after she got a warning that the amulet had a new guardian. He’d been this awkward fourteen year old kid, who spread his time between playing soccer and sitting in a corner drawing superheroes, making detailed ashtrays for his Dad, or building massive constructions with lego. 

He’d never even dreamed of becoming a superhero himself, but once he had the powers, what else was he supposed to do?

When Andy had heard him say that, she’d started training him, she’d told him that if he wanted to join the team, he needed to know what he was doing. He couldn't just haphazardly risk people’s lives just to make himself look good. She’d made him run drills, and made him explore every possible part of his powers. By the time he got out of college, she finally considered him ready to join the big leagues. He’d been working as a solo hero for years by that point. 

He’d first ran into Zealot a few years after he first joined the Old Guard. They’d both been dealing with a group of bank robbers. Joe ended up having to save the thieves from the Crusaders.

Nicky didn’t talk much when he was masked up. Joe would make jokes, and try for banter, but Zealot was always so serious, quiet and deadly. Looking at how Nicky was now holding back a smile whenever Joe made one of his remarks, Joe wondered how often the man had held back a smile back then. He wasn’t even sure how well he’d even known the man.

Zealot had been one of his nemesis, for some reason the Templars seemed to think that the guy with the electricity would make a good match against his water powers. He’d wondered if any of them other than Zealot had ever caught on to how quickly Andy had made him adapt his suit so it would be non conductible, to keep him from getting electrocuted, as soon as she realized what Zealot powers were.

He touched the communicator, to the channel Book had told him would reach the team. 

“Andy.”

“You fucking idiot. Do you have any idea what…” Joe didn’t want to interrupt her, he even let her go in on at least some of her rant, but there was no time.

“Andy, Nicky wasn’t lying.”

“Nicky? You’re calling that monster by his first name already?”

“He just wants to help stop his own people, Andy.”

“He got Lykon paralyzed.”

“I know, and I don’t excuse that. But Andy, I need his help, just like I need the team’s help. This thing, it’s too big. The entire city is in danger.”

Andy took a breath. He knew she wasn’t unreasonable, that she was just scared for his sake.

“Put him on com.”

Joe linked Nicky’s communicator to the team’s, gently showing his support.

“Al-Tayyib might think you can be trusted, but I know better.”

Nicky didn’t answer, he just looked down. His hands hanging by his side, his fingers curling around the metal rod Joe had given him earlier as if the man wasn’t quite sure what to do with his hands. 

“I didn’t mean to hurt Lykon.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that.”

“I wanted us to work together. I was foolish enough to think my people wanted the same. They didn’t.” Nicky’s voice sounded so level, but Joe was close enough to see the defeated slump in his shoulders. How he looked away, the guilt lining his tone. “ I’m sorry.” he almost whispered the last part. 

Joe stared at the man, he fell still at the silence coming from Andy’s side. 

“Andy?”

“What do you need us to do, Tayyib?”

“We’re tracking down the drugs, I can send you the locations. The explosions are linked to the same situation.”

“Fuck.”

“Andy, Book went into Merrick’s mainframe, I just lost touch with him. I think he’s in trouble.”

“River’s keeping an eye on his body, I’ll let her know what’s going on. Now go do whatever you need to do. And if you have to use Zealot as collateral damage , please do so.” she snickered before breaking off communication

“Andy!”

Joe knew that that was as much approval as he was ever going to get of his plan.

Nicky didn’t react to it, he was just trying out the balance of the iron rod, electric current running alongside it, causing a trickle of tension between them.. Joe wanted to tell him to be careful, that the dealers they were going to be dealing with now weren’t part of the plan. They had no real idea of what they’d be spreading around. 

Instead they marched into the East Side, both knowing how they stuck out, dressed in their costumes. Nicky wearing one that was most definitely not looked at with any kind of approval.

A lot of people who saw them coming ducked back inside, staring at the two of them from behind windows, hidden behind curtains, a few kids got dragged inside by worried moms.

Things were quiet for a bit. When Joe saw a bunch of boys standing on the corner, glaring at them, he headed straight their way. It was a stupid move, he knew that better than anyone. But it was the only way to get their attention.

When it led to them being attacked, Joe was surprised by how much Nicky held back. Not a single blast he shot was aimed at a person, more threats and bluffs than the kind of strikes that Joe knew the man was capable of.Not a single one of their opponents ended up dead.

Finally Joe just froze their feet to the ground, careful not to cause any damage. 

One of the guys started trembling, trying to pull away as Nicky got closer. It felt odd that he seemed more scared of Nicky, when it had been Joe who’d actually done any damage to them.

“Please, please don’t kill me.” the guy started begging. 

Nicky stood there, staring at the man. “I’m not going to kill you.”

The man wasn’t listening.

“Please Al-Tayyib, I swear, I’ll get out of the life, anything, please don’t let him kill me.” The other men seemed just as terrified, more so even. “I have a kid, please.” one of the others started begging.

“They think you switched sides.” Nicky whispered.

Fuck, that thought alone made Joe want to let them go.

“We’re not going to kill you. Al-Tayyib wouldn't let me.” Nicky said.

The boys stared at them. A bit of hope when they stared at him. Hoping his presence there would keep them alive.

“We’re looking for information.”

“Whatever you need to know…”

“Someone’s been spreading large batches of drugs. We need to find those drugs.”

Oddly enough that made one of them stare at Nicky again.

“I know you guys don’t want to betray your friends. I know what it’s like, when you think everyone but your brothers is against you. I’ve been there.” They stared at Joe, clearly disbelieving him. “I grew up in these streets. I got lucky, but I know what it’s like, when the cops eye you like a criminal just for walking home at night. When your parents have to struggle day by day, just to put some food on the table, and you see your Dad come home at night, exhausted, sinking in the couch and for what… not enough money to even pay the rent without saving up.” Joe knew they were still hesitating, at least half of them thought what he was saying was a bunch of crap. “And then you see the big guys, driving around in expensive cars, buying games you couldn’t afford even after a month of chores around the neighborhood, and all they have to do is put some merchandise on the streets.” Joe wasn’t even looking at Nicky, Nicky who was pretending not to listen.”This isn’t about you, this isn’t about the dealers.” Joe said. “My friend here was a member of the Templars. The Crusaders’ big guns.” One of the boys snorted at that, before quickly lowering his face. “But he found out what his bosses were planning, And he couldn't live with it. He came to us, because he knew that if he didn’t, countless people in these streets would die. He came to us because he found out his people were spreading poisoned drugs. Drugs layered with some kind of compound that’ll turn even regular people psychotic. A kind of contagion that would spread among anyone who touched either the drugs, or was in contact with anyone who took them.”

“Like a zombie virus?”

“Exactly like a zombie virus.”

“My Mom and Dad live here.” One boy said.

Nicky turned to the boy, reaching out to him. “We’re going to stop it. But we need your help to do so. Please, let us save people.”

“How do we know you’re not messing with him?” One of the boys asked Nicky.

It wasn’t an unreasonable question.

“You don’t, you just have to believe that Al-Tayyib is smart enough to see through me if I am.”

“Him? Smart? I saw him cuddle with some of the street cats in the neighborhood.” Joe would feel insulted, if it weren’t true. What could he say, the poor thing had come up to him, asked for cuddles till he fed her and her kittens, and then ran off on him, treating him like the sucker he was.

Joe was starting to recognize the twitch hinting at a smile in the corner of Nicky’s lips. 

“Al right, we’ll warn people. But if this is a trick, I’ll…”

“Beg for mercy?” Joe muttered. The kid grumbled but didn’t try and make another threat. When Nicky and him continued down the streets, Joe couldn't help but turn to check up on the man. 

“Guess I’m lucky.” Nicky said as soon as they were out of earshot

“Lucky?”

“That you have a thing for strays.”

“Yep, especially for feral strays.” Joe grinned, they were heading up to the house of one of the local gang leaders. The guy was twenty three and one of the biggest up and comers in the area. Joe had tried to bring him down before, unfortunately, unlike the small time dealers, whenever the cops tried to find anything on him, he had his bosses lawyers at the ready to keep him out of jail.

The guy was smart, and he had people ready to take the fall for him in a heartbeat. And Joe doubted he’d give in as easy as a bunch of kids did.

At least he did until he heard the sound of screams coming from the house.

Nicky was at the house first, kicking down the doors, jumping into motion as he saw a woman attacking some of the men inside. Three guys were bleeding on the floor already, a fourth was holding a smoking gun. 

When the woman heard them come in, she turned to them, her eyes were blank, black veins stood out in her paled face. She seemed to be staying up through a sheer unwillingness to go down, too unaware of just how hurt she was.

“Ma’am, put down the bat.”

It was only then that Joe noticed the bloody baseball bat she was holding. Or the bullet wounds patterning her chest. She seemed to have a hard time to keep standing, but was too focused on getting at the guy in front of her to stop, as if strings were barely holding her up. 

Joe quickly put her in a hold of ice, keeping her in place, while Nicky made the guy drop his gun.

“She suddenly went loco.” the guy said. One moment she’s taking a sniff, then she grabs my bat off the wall and starts hitting my boys.” The guy sputtered out.

“What drugs did she take?” Nicky asked. The guy started to ramble, and Joe could see the veins bulge underneath his skin.

“Sombra… What drugs did she take?” That’s when the guy lost it, his eyes turned to white and he came at them, trying to hit them with the gun. “Nicky took him down before he could do so.

“He needs a medic.” Nicky whispered, bending over the guy, checking him and the woman for injuries while Joe held him down. Joe went to a box marked with a cross, unfortunately the first aid kit had nothing but a bunch of drugs in it. He pressed a button alerting the authorities to the place.

They heard a sound, and a girl came ducking out of cover, rambling in Spanish. 

Joe stood ready for her to attack as well, she didn’t. 

She didn’t run, she didn’t say a word, she just crumbled.

Joe did the only thing he could do, he got out of the way and let Nicky handle it.


	14. Chapter 14

The com kept beeping, and after the fourth time, Nile picked up.

“Yes?”

“River, Athena’s tits, what was keeping you? I’ve been trying to get through to you.”

“I know, I’m at Booker’s, we’re under attack.”

“Fuck.”

“Three Templars. So far only one of them has managed to get through the shop’s defenses. I was able to take her down, she’s wearing those power cuffs that you put on Zealot earlier.”

“Of course the idiots took them off.” Andy muttered, barely audible, Nile was sure she wouldn't have heard it either, if she hadn’t been slowly gaining Andy's supersenses. Nile tried to pretend she hadn’t heard. 

“The building locked us in. I wouldn’t know how to get out right now, even if I wanted to.”

“Yeah, that’s Booker for you. He’s paranoid, but by now he’s damn well earned the right to it.”

“What about the other two Templars?” Nile could hear Quynh’s voice on the other side of the line. 

“I don’t recognize them. Booker’s system called them Sliver and Dawnspring. The one I took out seems to be Chantille.

“Man, Book must have really pissed them off. The only thing proving they have higher priorities is that Firebrand isn’t there. Especially now that Zealot is’occupied’ elsewhere”

“So that’s … a good thing?”

“How is he?”Andy was clearly trying to change the subject, Nile let her.

“Completely catatonic from what I can see. He seemed hurt earlier, but … Andy what do I do? Is there anything I can do to help him?”

“Keep his body safe. If those Templars get in, there’s only so much the shop’s defenses can do. Let him know you’re there. I’ll send Celeste to help you as soon as I can miss her.”

Nile nodded and broke the connection. Someone was rending at the metal armour that had formed in front of the door and windows, trying to break through. Nile didn’t know which of the two remaining Templars was which. But she figured he was the one with Magnetic powers. Once this was over, she was really going to do that homework that Andy had assigned her with, on getting to know all the big threats in the city.

A laser managed to hit just a few inches away from her feet, and she backed off a few steps, knowing the forcefield was about to give out.

“Book, I really hope this is worth it.”

  
  


*****   
  


Booker stood in a battlefield of old, an army of toy soldiers attacking him from below like a bunch of pawns attacking the king. It was then that he felt it, a presence, he looked up and noticed Nile’s face reflecting in the moon. She seemed worried. He wanted to tell her he was handling things, but every time he did, another attack came his way.

Whatever IT’er they had up against him, was more than just some desk jockey. The guy clearly knew what he was doing. Booker hadn’t faced this much competition in years. It wasn’t enough though, so far he’d managed to collect so much evidence, that if he got out with it, it could not just ruin Merrick Pharmaceuticals reputation globally, but land Merrick himself in jail for years. And considering he was the bastard that had gotten Booker locked up for skimming from the top, that was something he was more than glad to see happen.

He shivered, surrounded on all sides,he could see them through their webcams, thinking they’d won, thinking they’d locked him in, ready for bonuses and praise for finally stopping him.

Book closed his eyes, feeling the ones and zeroes that made up the world round him, and then he scooped deep, wrapped it around him like a robe, and went swimming in an ocean of numbers, by the time he came back up, he knew he was dripping facts, using them as a battering ram as he slipped from computer to smartphone, flying through the ether from computer to computer, joining computers all over the city, before he dumped all the information of Merrick’s computer in a million computers city wide, taking the most important facts and posting them on the front pages of several news agencies websites, not even waiting for them to find them and write an article about them. 

Covering dozens of news pages with the contracts Merrick had written up, plans for riots, fires, explosions, and how because of those Merrick Inc would sell riot gear and antidotes for a virus problem that didn’t exist yet, a virus that Merrick Pharmaceutical had created itself.

Videos and images of experiments on unwilling subjects, torture really. Merrick working with the Crusaders, Crusaders spreading the virus through drugs, a list of targets of people Merrick saw as a threat, the number of estimated dead that was seen as acceptable sacrifices.

He was exhausted, inches away from losing himself entirely, knowing his consciousness was falling apart at the seams, and about ready to just let himself go. Even knowing it would kill him.

And then he heard her, calling his name. 

Her voice was a chant, her breath an anchor, it solidified his mind and pulled him back home.

By the time people realized what had been posted the news went viral, and Booker’s mind hit his body, just in time to find a Templar on top of him, ready to blast his head of, while Nile screamed his name, desperately fighting another of their sort.

When he opened his eyes, two Templars were dead, and Nile was sitting by his side, the two of them stared at one another. Book shyly looked away, he didn’t notice that so did she.

Not even aware that the city wide ‘riots’ had already started.


	15. Chapter 15

Nicky remembered the police academy. How many of the classes instructed you to see the communities you’d be sent into as a warzone. You were supposed to serve and protect, but when it came down to it, the biggest priority was to make sure you kept yourself safe. At any cost. 

The training the Crusaders had given them had gone along the same lines, with an added dose of a need to protect the rest of the city from the dregs of society. Killing the scum selling drugs, was almost an act of mercy.

It was a strange new way of looking at the place, walking here with Joe. Imagining him as one of the kids hanging out around the streets. Before he’d have seen them as loitering, wasting their time on the streets due to absent parents, up to no good. Thinking of them as Joe though, he suddenly realized they were just wasting time like any kid would. Hanging around with friends, meeting up with other teens.

Even the boys that had attacked them, had only been a threat because of him. They’d been no more than kids really, the youngest were sixteen, seventeen maybe, the oldest barely in their early twenties. Children, still. And they’d attacked because they saw him, and thought he was going to kill them. They had been more scared of him, than that they’d been put at ease by Joe’s presence next to him.

And if it hadn’t been for the past day, they’d have been right to be scared.

That was what his uniform meant, the suit he’d been so proud of when he’d earned it. It meant fear, it meant terror, and he’d worn it with pride. Because with fear came order, came respect or so Keane had told him over and over. 

The girl shivered, Nicky’s Spanish wasn’t perfect, but he could at least make out most of what she was saying. That Dijon had taken some of Sombra’s new stash, and Sombra had gotten pissed at that. Only then Dijon had lost it, grabbed Sombra’s bat and started slashing at everyone around her. Sombra was screaming now, yelling that he was going to kill them. Nicky blanked him out.

The girl seemed thin, her arms covered in needle marks. She was barely out of her teens.

“Did you take any?” he asked her. She shook her head. “I begged him for some, but I couldn’t… I couldn't pay for it. Freddie was going to give me some later. She looked at one of the dead men on the floor as she said so.

That’s when they started hearing police sirens in the background.

Joe turned on the television, the riots had started.

They stared at one another, Nicky wasn’t sure what there was left, what he even could do. Was it too late? Had he been too late? 

“We need that antidote.”

“Booker sent the composition to you, right?”

Joe nodded.

“Does Sombra have a lab?” he asked the girl. She quickly nodded, taking them both down the basement. 

The antidote wasn’t even hard to make. It hadn’t been meant to be. The hardest ingredient to get his hands on would have been some of the tainted drugs. Joe got the neighborhood kids involved. The ones that had come looking when they heard the gunshots coming from Sombra’s house.

He sent them to the drugstore to get everything they needed, while Nicky stared at the tv screens.as he waited. He saw the news talking about the information on Merrick that Booker had dropped city wide. The police had set a city wide manhunt on anyone related to the Crusaders. 

In a way it was almost a relief. To know that the Crusaders wouldn’t get out of this unscathed, that their reputation wouldn’t survive this. And that Merrick would pay the price for his crimes.

He saw his own reflection in the tv screen, the Crusader’s cross on his chest. 

He’d been so proud when he’d earned it. He pulled off his tunic and stared at it in his hands. Even the armor felt too heavy on his body, knowing it had come from Merrick, just like his powers. He tore the fabric in two, then four pieces before he stood there, ramming the pieces of cloth into the wood oven.The armor looked wrong without something to cover it up, so he took it off and left it on the floor. He looked alien to himself, standing there in his tanktop and pants, like he was undressed.

It wasn’t a way of avoiding attention. The cops would have his name and face by now. And they’d be pissed, because Merrick’s plan had included the deaths of police officers to help aid the narrative. Some of their number were already dead or infected

When Joe came in with the ingredients, Nicky quickly got to mixing them, careful to be precise and get it right. He had a first dose ready mere minutes later. He brought it up to the living room, where Sombra was straining against Joe’s cuffs. 

Nicky shivered as he felt the cold, standing in front of the man, as he held him down and injected him, careful not to be touched by any of the man’s liquids. The antidote took effect almost immediately.

“So it works?”

“Yes. but there’s no way we can inject everyone in the city. There’s no way to do that in time.”

“Does it need to be injected.”

“I’m not sure, I don’t think …”

“Come on.” Nicky was glad that Joe didn’t ask him about the armor; or what he’d burned in the stove. Joe didn’t press him on what he was planning to do after, when Nicky himself had no idea. It left things open, a question, that Nicky as of yet had no idea how to answer.

They got on Joe’s bike, thousands of doses worth of antidote in a backpack on Nicky’s back. 

By the time they got to the main city riot, the Old guard was helping the cops to hold back the infected crowd, keeping them as constrained as they could get them. These were innocent people, all of them. And the worse the violence the cops used against them to hold them in place, the worse the drug hit them. 

Joe had a plan, Nicky hoped it would work.

That’s when Nicky’s communicator jumped on. 

It was the Old Guard’s team frequency. Joe had left it on earlier. Nicky just hadn’t logged into it before. It wasn’t his business to listen in on it.

“Nicky boy, I have an offer for you.”

Nicky froze as he heard Firebrand’s voice. 

“I know you’re with them. But you’ve still got a chance. You can still make this right. “

“Shut up, Keane.” Joe said. 

“What do you want, Keane.” Nicky asked.

“It’s a funny thing, DNA.”

“So?” 

“Why do you think I came after you, Nicky boy? Why would I come and check up on some nobody, some good for nothing weakling?”

Nicky had wondered about that a thousand times before. He hadn’t been friends with Keane, Keane hadn’t even been from his own division. 

“When we had her, it was almost a shock that the serum had actually worked on her. She was just some nitwit grabbed from the streets. The entire bunch of them were supposed to be no more than a test group, to see how the serum would work on people that weren’t altered to deal with it. Only as soon as she got the first injection, she took to it better than any of the candidates intended for the program.”

“What are you even talking about?”

“I’m talking about your darling Lucia, Nicky. Your sweet little sister. The one who was supposed to have the blessed life. The one they told you was getting the loving parents, the good home. Except the loving parents were a bunch of sadistic assholes who couldn't handle their little girl not being the perfect little showcase for their charity that they intended her as, so back into fostercare she went..

Poor little Lucia, all alone on the streets, with not even her big strong brother to look after her.”

God, no.

“The bitch ran of course, the first time she had a chance, she ran for cover. Ended up on the streets, away from Daddy who couldn’t keep his hands at home, and Mommy who punished her for crying in public. Away from the doctors who gave her a purpose and tried to make her life worth something for everyone.”

“What did you do to my sister?”

Keane’s snicker could be heard through the connection.

“And then you had to take that DNA test. Remember that one. The one that your department used to make sure they didn’t accidentally identify one of the cops on the scene of that gruesome murder of that sweet darling girl.. You were there, one of the first on the scene, so they got your DNA and put it in the system, in Merrick’s system. And we realized, the bitch had a brother.”

Nicky remembered that day, Keane standing at the door, ready to watch a game, putting down the gun as he went to open the door, unable to handle knowing he’d failed that girl. That he hadn’t been able to save a girl who’d come begging to them for protection from her boyfriend. The girl who’s body he’d found. The girl whose boyfriend had found out she’d called the cops. Just a girl, and her asshole of a boyfriend had beaten her to death, because he’d seen her talk to Nicky. 

And Keane had arrived, ready to watch a game. 

Except he hadn’t, had he?

“You were so desperate, Nicky boy. I knew then you needed us. Lucia, she’s a runner, she ran from her parents, she ran from the doctors, and now she’s running from her friends in the guard. Went off to that bastard Le Livre. I knew then that you’d come to us willingly. I just needed to give you a reason to do so, and once I did, you were like a moth to the flames.”

“What did you do to Lucia?”

“Oh she’s perfectly safe. And she’ll stay safe. All you have to do is bring me those antidotes of yours.”

“No.”

“Don’t be such a softie Nicky boy. It’s not like they’re the only way for the city to get them. Some lab will make new ones soon enough. It’ll just take them long enough for us to show this city just what kind of rats it has allowed to run amongst them. And by then, the Crusaders will have had their doses, your brothers will have had their doses, and you and baby sis can run off happily ever after, wherever you want to go. Think about it, Nicky boy, and if you know what’s best for you, you’ll meet me where I changed your life.”

The connection froze out, Joe was saying something, Nicky had no way to respond.


	16. Chapter 16

Joe stopped the bike almost as soon as Keane’s voice came through the com. Nicky was shaking as he heard the man’s words. It made Joe want to kill the man even more than he’d done so before.

Joe had never wanted to commit cold blooded murder. Every time in the past he’d taken a life it had been a matter of saving a life. 

But Keane…

“Joe, the asshole took Celeste.” It was Quynh’s voice on the line.

“What?”

“Firebrand went after Celeste. She was on her way to Booker’s place, to help him and Nile.”

“You think?”

“I don’t know what to think.”

“We need to get these antidotes to the crowd, and save Lucia.” Nicky whispered. It was the first thing he said once Keane stopped talking.

Joe wanted to pull the man in a hug, but they didn’t have the time. 

That’s when Copley appeared in front of them. Nicky gave him the bag. 

“They’re tested?”

“Yes. They should work.”

“Then go get young Celeste.”

The man teleported away with the antidotes before Nicky could change his mind. 

Joe let Nicky give him instructions of where to go. To the same flat where Nicky had left the usb stick earlier. Nicky’s safeplace. Taking a closer look at it now, it looked even worse than it had before. 

Joe and Nicky went up the stairs, Joe almost wanted to coat them in ice and replace them with one of his own constructions. It would be safer than the rotted wood they were standing on now.

When Nicky pushed open the door, Keane was standing there waiting for them. Five Crusaders standing with him. And behind them, the man himself. Steven Merrick, and his pet scientist, dr Meta Kozak, ready and waiting to get their antidotes now that the cops attention had chased them away from their own stash.

“Where are the antidotes, Mister Di Genova?”

“With the people who need them.”

“Why you selfish little…”

Joe was about ready to shoot a burst of ice, when he realized his powers weren’t working.

“Mister Tayyib, I presume. You might have noticed that we prepared for you and young Mister Di Genova. The entire apartment is covered in a forcefield where only those we want to have powers,can use them.”

Fuck. 

That’s when he saw Celeste. She was tied up, held in between two of the Crusaders. 

She had a gag in her mouth, but even with it in, he could almost hear the obscenities she was shouting at the bastards holding her.

“Please, let her go.” Nicky begged. But Joe didn’t think even Nicky believed it would help.

“Now why would I do that?” Merrick stood there, he looked almost disheveled, his weasley face all red and anxious. 

“It’s unfair really; how the likes of you can pretend to be more than the rest of us. When those who should have the power, can’t receive it.” Joe was eying the opposition , the ways out, how to get Celeste out of her captor’s hands, without getting her hurt as Merrick rambled about how unfair the world was. 

“I spent millions, millions in this project, to get powers. Only for all of it to turn out useless. While people like you, like the Di Genovas somehow manage to win the genetic lottery. I’d almost thank you for bringing Zealot here. Once Dr Kozak here can fully explore Zealot’s DNA, she might finally crack the code. And well… even if it doesn’t end up working for me. I’m sure there’d be plenty of people worldwide more than willing to pay for a chance at superpowers.”

Joe remembered seeing an interview with the man on television a few years ago. Back then, just listening to that voice had made him feel like he wanted to take a bath. Listening to him in person was even worse.

“And you expect me to let you take Nicky.”

“‘Nicky’ is already mine, Mister Al Kaysani. I bought him lock stock and barrel when he joined the Crusaders. If he leaves here, all he’ll end up doing is going to jail. Your friend Celeste on the other hand… her, I’m willing to let go. It’s an easy solution, isn’t it? Let me have Zealot, a man that’s been your nemesis for years, and I’ll release your friend. The doctor only needs one of them for the tests.”

“Do what she says.” Nicky said. “Please, Joe. Save her.”

Joe tried to imagine what he’d do if Merrick had one of his siblings. He wouldn't have hesitated either. But he also remembered the videos Booker had sent him. Of what Kozak had done to her test subjects. Not just to Celeste, or Nicky, but all the others. And what he’d be sending Nicky into if he let her have him.

Merrick made a mistake though. He assumed that because Joe couldn't use his powers, that he was helpless. That because Merrick’s men had guns aimed at him, at Nicky, at Celeste, that Joe would be easy to dismiss. For that matter, he ignored that Nicky became more deadly without his powers, backed into the wall, than he’d been with them.

“You have no idea what you're asking. See, there’s this thing about being a superhero. We’re supposed to save lives, all lives. Not just the ones we deem ‘worthy’.” Joe spoke up, using his words as a distraction as he got ready to fight back>.

“Yes, it’s a rather quaint and naive notion. As if there’s any such thing as ‘heroes’”

“See, that's where you’re wrong.”

“Why? Because you think you’re a hero?”

“Do you know what makes a hero, Mister Merrick?”

Joe took a move further, almost to check what Firebrand would do, from the look of it, he got ready to attack if Joe took another step.

“A hero is someone who stands up for others.” Merrick was clearly tired of it, ready to get this over with. But Joe wasn’t. “Now if you asked me yesterday, I’d have told you that Zealot here, is the very opposite of a hero. That he was nothing but a monster, or a killer. That jail was probably too kind for him, and that he deserved whatever you or your pet scientist could do to him.” Joe placed his hand on Nicky’s shoulder, “And I’d have been wrong. Zealot did the bravest thing of all. He recognized he was in the wrong, and he made an effort to change, to stand up against his own people and risk his life for others. When there was nothing for him to be gained out of it, and everything to lose. So if you think I’m going to let you, or anyone hurt him now...” That’s when Zealot and him shot into action, their moves almost seamlessly attuned to one another, fighting as if they were one being split in two. Zealot took out the men standing near Celeste, getting their attention, forcing them to let go of her. While Joe focused his attention on Firebrand. 

Joe’s chances should be zero. He was unarmed, he had no powers. He was just one man against the most dangerous of the Templars. But he had one advantage. With Merrick in the room, there was no way Firebrand would go full force. 

And as much as Joe had all the respect for human life, he had no problem using an asshole like Merrick as a human shield if he needed to do so.

Firebrand was about to let loose with a barrage of fire, but Joe managed to hit him down before he could do so. Kozak had something in her hands. But Keane was keeping Joe too busy to get to her. 

One other thing Merrick didn’t know, that Joe did.

Celeste had been trained by Andromache. And one of the first things that Andy made sure all her students knew how to do, was get out of cuffs if needed. And how to fight if doing so was impossible. 

Kozak did not expect for Celeste to hit her from behind. He just saw her as a tool to use. But if there was anything none of Andy’s trainees were, it was helpless. She took down Kozak in a matter of seconds, the woman too used to hide behind others with guns. Joe could see that Celeste wanted to kill her, and that when she didn’t, it wasn’t out of mercy. When finally got her hands on Kozak master controller for the power diffuser, she threw the box to the floor and crushed them, the power diffuser sputtered out almost immediately.

Joe instantly flooded the place with all the damp in the air, making sure to keep it from Celeste. it only took Nicky a second to catch on before he sent a low level blast over the water, taking out every last man still standing.

He was shivering, his body cold under the mere cover of the tank top he’d kept on. Joe was about ready to give the man his coat, feeling cold just looking at him. 

Celeste glared at Nicky, recognizing him right away.

“Lucia.” he said. His tone was desperate, yet cautious. His hand reaching out to something, not quite sure to what

“Don’t…Don’t you even… You’re a monster.”

“I don’t care who you are. You’re one of them, you’ll always be one of them.”

“Andy said Nile’s got Booker secure. We need to get back to the city square. Operative got some of the antidotes off to the cops, but..”

“I’ll get there.”

“Take my bike, I’ll take Nicky on the ice express.”

” He’s not Nicky, Joe. You get that right? I don’t care what he says. He was part of those monsters.”

“He’s changed, Cel.”

“But into what?”

She left, leaving Nicky standing there. Joe almost wished the man would cry, or scream, instead he waited for Joe to take the lead.


	17. Chapter 17

Nicky stared after Lucia as she left, thinking of the times he’d fought her, not even realizing who she was. He knew she’d been close to Lykon, he remembered her sobbing over the man’s limp body after… after Nicky had hurt him. He remembered all the times he’d… god, he was supposed to protect her, and he’d hurt her instead. He’d joined the very people that had experimented on her, tortured her. And she’d been hurt by the Crusaders in ways no one should be. Hurt by him. 

He shivered, and helped Joe tie up their defeated foes. 

It was odd how anticlimactic things were after that. They tied up the bad guys, Nicky waited as Joe called the cops on them. Firebrand had kept talking at him, but Nicky had tuned him out. Every memory he had of the man, every smile the man had thrown at him, all of them had been false. All of them had been a trap to lure him into the Crusaders, to turn him into whatever he was now.

Joe had gently led him out of the room after they were done. Using the Crusaders own power dampeners against them. The ones they’d been planning to put on him and Lucia. 

Whatever claims they made about letting Lucia go, they’d probably been lies as well.

He could see the glow of fires spread all over the city as they got out of the building, the terrified looks of people as they tried to get out of the way, locked themselves in, barred their doors and windows. 

It wasn’t just the one county, it was the entire city that was scared. 

Joe moved them over the sky, giving them a bird's eye view of the chaos as they headed to the market square, seeing Lucia drive the same way below them.

Andromache was leading the support staff, cops, rescue workers, all the way the general she’d been so often through history. Commanding like the goddess she’d once been worshipped as. 

When Nicky saw the crowd get too close to the walls, too ready to overwhelm the forces trying to hold them in the square, he tried to focus, holding on to the bar Joe had given him, following the pattern of one of Joe’s structures, building a corral of electrical waves. Low level, never meant to hurt, but enough to keep people in. 

“Take them down, Zealot, we need to calm them down.” Andromache told him. 

Nicky nodded and sent a burst of electricity all through the crowd, careful, oh so careful not to permanently harm anyone, and scared he still would. Some of these people were elderly, what if any of them had heart problems?

But he followed orders, hoping, praying that Andromache knew what she was doing.

In the end Quynh found some kind of spell that needed all their powers to spread and duplicate the anti dote. Celeste sent soothing waves over the crowd, Joe caused a cloud to build over them, which Quynh filled it with drops of the anti dote, till Nicky used an electric charge to make the cloud break into rain.

He wasn’t sure how it worked, he didn’t care, just that it did.

But then, that wasn’t the real fight, now was it?

The real fight came after. As the cops spotted him, and realized who he was. The thing is, he’d dealt with cops before. Many of them had quietly tolerated the Crusaders, letting them get away, even knowing what they had done. Some of them had seen the Templars as their heroes, amost looked up to them. Not all, there were plenty that just did their jobs, and saw them as criminals, but before they’d had allies in the force.

Now… all of them saw the Crusaders, any Crusaders as the number one threat, and before he knew it, he had over a dozen guns aimed his way.

Nicky knew he could fight. He could still get out. The heroes were distracted with the crowd, and there were more dangerous foes to worry about. Andromache hadn’t even had cuffs slapped on him or taken him down. And he knew she probably wanted to. He wasn’t trapped, he could evade the cops, evade the heroes, go undercover and make a run for it.

The problem was, even if he could physically do so, it would still be wrong.

Instead he kept standing, and slowly dropped the bar he was still holding on to, letting it fall to the ground before he sank down to his knees, placing his hands behind his neck in an obvious sign of surrender. 

The cops approached him, one of them kicked the bar out of his reach, and cuffed him.

That’s when Joe looked his way and realized what was happening.. 

“Nicky?”

Joe stood ready to stop them, water energizing around him. Nicky could see the power start building around him, could feel the tension as Joe grabbed for the water molecules in the air. 

Joe would fight the entire police force, and even his own friends for him, if he had to. Nicky could see that now, and he couldn’t let him.

“It’s alright, Joe. I have to atone. I’ve done a lot of bad things. I get that now.” The cops made him get up, ready to take him in, stopping solely because of their respect for Joe, for the weight held by Joe’s membership in the Guard.

“They can’t just…”

“It’s the right thing to do. Please, let me do this.” The cops hesitated, unsure if they should stop the hero from approaching or not. Joe didn’t seem to care. 

“I’ll get you help, a lawyer.”

“Thank you, Joe.” Not for the lawyer, Nicky didn’t care about that. “Thank you, for listening, for giving me a chance. For believing I could be better.” Joe touched him, Nicky let himself sink into the man’s touch, his breath soothing down under the man’s presence, feeling the warmth of his skin.

”God Nicky, I wanted to believe. I wanted to hope that you were telling the truth. It’s sometimes hard to remember there are people behind the names and the masks we fight.” If there was one thing Nicky understood, it was that. “Thank you for proving me right, I… “ 

Nicky wasn’t sure what Joe was about to say, or do, as the man came closer, put his hands on the back of Nicky’s head, pulling his body towards him. Nicky wasn’t sure which of them started the kiss. But in the end it didn’t matter.

When the cops finally broke them apart, Joe was still standing there, his hands reaching out to Nicky. . 

Nicky could still feel the other man’s taste on his lips as he was cuffed, had his rights read to hmi, and was dragged into a police van. He was locked into power dampeners that felt like he was encased in cold steel.

The cops didn’t seem sure what to say. Nicky didn’t either, so he just stayed silent.

When the door fell shut on him in Supermax he sat down in his cell, staring at the wall, kneeling down as if for prayer.

He couldn’t find the words. What words were there?

  
  
  


******

  
  


Joe screamed at Andy, at Quynh at Celeste, a little. Not like she cared. She was still pissed that he’d defended Nicky to her.

He drank with Booker who’d been dragged to the Old Guard Headquarters by Nile. Booker who’d been given no choice about it. He was part of the team now, whether he wanted to or not. Especially once Andy figured out how close the man had come to dying just to get them the information they needed. With the way Book kept staring at Nile, he didn’t seem to mind too much.

Andy sat down next to Joe, when he was sobering up.

“He wasn’t a bad guy, Andy. not really. I know he did bad things. But… he can be so much more.”

“We can’t choose who deserves justice, Joe. Justice is blind for a reason.”

“But shouldn't justice strive for mercy? For those who truly repent?”

Andy didn’t answer.

Joe kept his word to Nicky, got him a lawyer. The man didn’t seem hopeful. Not after what the Crusaders had done. Not now that every part of the law enforcement seemed to work as hard as possible to separate themselves from any kind of possible involvement with the Crusaders. Shouting loudly what a disgrace the order was, how they’d always been against them. The DA seemed understanding, and it did help that Nicky had helped out the Guard, and had stood up against the Crusaders and their plan. It’s just… there was only so much the man could do when the charges Nicky was guilty of were so severe.

When Joe visited him in jail, Nicky looked so small in his prisoner jumpsuit. There were bruises all over his face. Joe didn't even want to think how many of them were out of sight. He tried to bring them up. But Nicky quickly changed the topic.

It was hard, figuring out what they could and couldn't talk about. Nicky had been talking with the DA, giving them every scrap of information he had on either Merrick, Kozak or the Crusaders in general.

There was no deal.Nicky hadn't asked if there was. Asking him why he hadn't asked his lawyer to insist on one, was one of the things Nicky didn't want to talk about.

Guilt was a terrible burden to bear.

Joe knew he'd have to talk to Nicky's lawyer about it. But that didn't mean the man would tell Joe. Whether the money to pay him came from Joe or not.

Joe wished he could touch Nicky. But even that was impossible as Nicky sat in a glass box, even with the power dampening collar locked to his neck. Nicky looked pale and ill. And yet there was nothing Joe could do to help or protect him.

When he talked to Andy about it later, she was supportive. At least she didn't push it in his face that Nicky just got what he deserved, when he damn well knew she could have.

Celeste avoided him.

Quynh said to let her. Celeste didn't want to deal with her brother. Or even admit that that was what Nicky was to her.

Copley promised to keep track of Nicky's case. Booker said Nicky was kept in isolation, because almost every gang in prison had some kind of beef with him. Either because he was a Crusader, or because he'd turned on them.

When he told Andy about it, she just shrugged. As if it didn't matter to her.

Joe shivered waiting at the prison gate. Just desperate to see Nicky. Knowing that even if he couldn't talk about any of it, that seeing Nicky would calm him down.

When the guards told him Nicky wasn't available, Joe was a minute away from flooding the entire prison. "Ask Andromache", was all the warden would tell him.

Joe practically stormed into Headquarters. Ready to scream at Andy. It didn't matter what she thought of Nicky, or Joe's bond with him. She couldn't just …

That's when he froze. Not believing his eyes.

"Nicky?"

Nicky stood there, he was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, a collar on his neck. It was the equivalent of an ankle band for superpowered felons.

"Hey, Joe."

"How?"

"Andromache talked to the DA. She made a...a deal?"

"You're here." 

Joe grabbed his hand. Refusing to believe Nicky was really here until he could reach out and touch him. Feel him for real

"I guess you've met the Guards newest member." He turned around to see Andy heading their way.

"Zealot will be serving out his sentence through public service instead of prison. In return we keep an eye on him. Keep him on the straight and narrow. I'm sure you can keep a close eye on him for us. Can’t you Joe?"

The way she winked at him made it quite clear what she meant with that.

Joe flipped her off before he grabbed Nicky and kissed him. The two of them standing there, not giving a fuck who saw them.

Epilogue

  
  
  


Lucia sat at the kitchen table. She refused to talk to him. He tried to remember to call her Celeste.

To stay out of her way.

He moved to leave the room, ready to give her her space, when she noticed him..

"Why?"

Why didn't he come for her? Why did he join the Crusaders? Why did he take Andy's offer, and force his presence on her? Why?

She pointed at the seat in front of her. He sat down.

"You look like Mama. You sound like her too."

She stared at him, tears in her eyes.

Joe stood behind them

He needed Joe. He could love him even.

"I won't fight Andy about you staying here. But we're not family." 

He closed his eyes, it was more than he could ask for. When Lucia left, Joe came closer. Nicky leant into him. He knew he wasn't worthy of Joe. But that didn't mean he'd ever give him up.

"Ti Amo." He tried out the words on his lips. "Cuore mio"

Joe didn't answer, he just pulled him close.

  
  


The End


End file.
